Security cameras on trains being considered to reduce groping

TOKYO —

The National Police Agency plans to consider ways to reduce the occurrence of groping on trains, such as installing security cameras inside carriages, after a recent spate of acquittals in groping cases has raised questions about how to investigate them, agency officials said Monday.

A study group to be set up in fiscal 2010 with railway operators and outside experts will discuss the matter, the officials said, but whether the plan to install cameras will be put into place remains to be seen as the discussions will be held under a new administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan.

In its policy package released in July, the DPJ, which won a landslide in Sunday’s general election, raised concerns about the ‘‘harmful effects of an unlimited expansion of police authority, such as the abuse of investigative authority and the invasion of privacy.’’

It also vowed to ‘‘firmly lay down with human rights in mind the rules of administration when new investigative techniques are to be used.’’

The planned study group is also expected to discuss such possible measures as increasing train cars solely for women and deploying security guards on trains based on the results of questionnaires answered by molestation victims and public opinion surveys, the officials said.

The agency filed a request with the Finance Ministry for an 8 million yen budget for the year starting in April next year for the planned study, they said.

In April, the Supreme Court acquitted a college professor of the charge of groping a high school girl on a packed Odakyu Line train, and called on courts to make ‘‘a careful judgment’’ in cases involving molestation because victims’ depositions tend to serve as the only evidence.

Following the ruling, the NPA instructed nationwide police departments to make thorough efforts to gather evidence to back up the victims’ statements, secure contact with witnesses to the arrests of alleged gropers, and promote preventive measures along with railway operators such as installing security cameras on station premises.