The “appalling reason” why the molester arrested at Shinjuku Station stopped the train and fled along the tracks.

The crime was so selfish.

On August 14, the Shinjuku Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrest of Eiji Iwahashi, 61, a cab driver in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on charges of indecent assault and obstruction of business by force for molesting a woman on a train and fleeing onto the tracks. The arrest charges include touching a teenage woman on the JR Saikyo Line at around 9:30 a.m. on May 27, and then fleeing from the platform at Shinjuku Station, thereby obstructing train service.

Iwahashi committed indecent acts, including putting his hand up a teenage woman’s skirt, on the Saikyo Line between Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, and was subdued by the victim and other passengers and taken down to the platform. When he was handed over to station staff, he jumped down onto the tracks to escape, and then attempted to escape by jumping down to the ground 4 m below the tracks, but was taken into custody by station staff who chased him and handed him over to the police. The train service was suspended for 17 minutes due to the commotion.

The suspect said that he had been repeatedly molesting women in mini-skirts between Ikebukuro and Shinjuku stations since he was about 25 years old. He said he enjoyed the thrill and sense of conquest of a woman who was disgusted by his actions, but denied some of the charges, saying, ‘I don’t remember how much I touched her.

He also stated that he fled on the railroad tracks, saying , “The tracks were easier to run on than the platform because there were no people on the tracks. In three incidents at JR Shinjuku Station between June and July, a suspected molester jumped onto the tracks and fled the scene. More than 100 images were found on Iwahashi’s smartphone, which are believed to have been taken of the woman, and the police are pursuing additional charges.

What are the penalties for entering railroad tracks? Koichiro Matsui, an attorney at ATOM Law Offices, says, “The question is: Is it right to say, ‘You should run away?

As for the act of entering the railroad tracks, you will be charged with obstruction of business as per the arrest charge. Under the Penal Code, you may be imprisoned for up to three years or fined up to 500,000 yen. In addition, if the train is delayed or stopped due to the intrusion onto the tracks, the amount of damages may be very large, and the railroad company may file a claim for damages against the individual.

Even so, people who are suspected of molestation often go down to the tracks to escape from the situation, because they have been falsely accused of molestation in the past and “if you go to the station clerk’s office to excuse yourself, the police will be called and you will be arrested without being heard at all. Therefore, you should walk away from the situation. If you are suspected of molestation, what should you do?

One option is to run away, but running away may increase the suspicion of the investigator. Even if you manage to escape, if you are caught later, your case may be aggravated. Therefore, my feeling is that it is important to stand your ground and show that you are willing to cooperate with the investigation.

You could leave your business card and leave the scene, but basically, I would recommend that you cooperate with the investigation. There is certainly a risk of being caught red-handed, but running away is not necessarily a good idea. If he really did not commit molestation, there is a high possibility that his innocence will be proven in the subsequent investigation, and it is better to deal with the situation fairly and honestly rather than forcing him to run away,” said Matsui.

In the case of Iwahashi, the suspect may have run away because he was unable to deal with the situation fairly and squarely. On the contrary, it would be unforgivable that he increased the commotion, resulting in inconveniencing more people.