Mainichi is reporting that train molesting incidents have continued to rise on some train lines, despite an increase in the hours of women-only train cars:

Groping attacks and other harassment against women commuters increased on some Tokyo-area train lines last year, despite the rising numbers of women-only cars, officials said Monday.

The overall number of reported groping cases in Tokyo dropped slightly in 2005, but authorities are worried by marked incidents of the attacks on a number of lines that introduced or increased women-only cars last year, police said.

“We’ve been calling on passengers to prevent such nuisances on trains with announcements and posters, but there were still victims and there were calls” for women-only trains, said JR East spokesman Yuichi Ogasawara.

Anonymous groping of women on Japan’s crowded train lines has long been a social concern.

Why might chikan still be increasing on certain lines where women-only train cars have increased? Here’s the Japan Probe theory: once women-only cars are introduced, women who ride in the other cars are considered free game. There’s the women-only car, and the chikan-car, nothing else. If you’re a lady and you don’t get in the women-only car, you are asking for it.