Pervert warning

Poster on a Tokyo subway, courtesy of Sanping Chen:

痴漢 (J. chikan / M. chīhàn")  is usually translated as "molester; pervert; groper".  But don't blame the Japanese for this expression; it means negative things in Chinese too.  There's another way to write it, 癡漢, which also means "pervert", etc.  In premodern times, back as far as the medieval period, this term meant "fool; dolt; idiot".  Aren't these strangely demeaning things to say about a 漢, which is now the ethnonym of the main group of Chinese people, Hànzú 漢族, and also how they refer to their language, Hànyǔ 漢語, which I call "Sinitic" and who somebody I know calls "Hannic"?

Transcription and translation by Nathan Hopson:

Left of strap, top to bottom:

ち、痴漢だ!! A, a molester!

Yellow search bubble:

痴漢　目撃　助けたい Molester witnessed want to help

Below:

助ける準備、できていますか Ready to help?

Right of strap, top to bottom

社内非常通報器 Emergency call/report device

押して助けて Push to help

乗務員や指令所と通話できます You can talk to a conductor or headquarters

どうしましたか "What is it?"

ちかんされていませんか? Are you being molested?

スマホアプリを見せて助ける Show the app to help

警視庁認定アプリDigiPolice Digi Police app approved by Tokyo Metropolitan Police

だいじょうぶですか Are you okay?

声かけで助ける Help with your voice

The text cut off by the strap at the bottom appears to be:

あなたの勇気で、助けられる With your courage, you can help

The URL in fine print at the bottom right of the poster refers to "pervert".

Another example of a not-so-good adjective applied to hàn 漢 is J. suikan 酔漢 / M. zuìhàn ("drunkard")

Of course, not all hàn 漢 are bad; indeed, there are hǎohàn 好漢 (attested from the early 9th c.), meaning "brave man; true man; hero", but also, as a euphemism, "outlaw"!

痴 is the simplified substitute for 癡, as the latter was excluded in the Kanji reform in 1949. The Japanese reform is not as drastic as the Chinese one. They sometimes coincide, and other times go different ways.

The original meaning of chikan as "foolish one" is attested since 1790, and the meaning "sexual offender" since 1949.  See the entry for 痴漢 in Kotobanku.

How it came to have the second meaning is not an easy question to answer.  See the entry for 痴漢 in JapanKnowledge.  The change of meaning from "the foolish" to "sexual offender" is apparently "narrowing". Textbook examples are:  meat (originally food in general), wife (< woman), deer (< animal, Ger. Tier), fowl (< bird in general, Ger Fügel), starve (< die, Ger. sterben), etc., etc.

Selected reading

• "Miswritten character on a Tokyo Metro sign" (7/31/15)
• "Illustrator shows different types of perverts encountered on Japanese trains", Japan Times (June 10, 2019 0), by Big Neko, grape Japan

[Thanks to Hiroshi Kumamoto and Takata Tokio]