Japanese shareholder activists have not enjoyed roaring success, but they may yet strike a decisive blow on the big issue of the day: all-male train carriages.

For that is the fight being picked next week by a group of ten unnamed investors in Seibu Holdings, the private railway and hotels conglomerate with interests that snake throughout the leisure industry. The annual meeting would otherwise have been expected to pass smoothly, but a showdown — possibly a humiliating one for management — seems inevitable.

To add to the Seibu board’s discomfort, the issue may be decided by Cerberus Capital Management, the American private equity group, which holds a 30 per cent stake in the company.

The activists’ demands are simple. A few years ago, in response to the apparently uncontrollable problem of gropers on trains, the Tokyo Metro and other, private railway operators, including Seibu, introduced women-only carriages during rush hour. Men, the activists assert, deserve the same safety zone on the basis of gender equality. The calls for the new all-male carriages are also groper-related, but framed differently. Women-only carriages, which have turned out to be a popular piece of gender segregation, were designed to protect women from the wandering hands of chikan — gropers who operate on Japan’s notoriously packed commuter routes. The problem peaked in 2004, when more than 2,000 incidents were recorded in Tokyo alone.

Men want a carriage in which they can be assured that women will not falsely accuse them of being gropers — an accusation that is difficult to disprove and can ruin a reputation. Traditional, pre-segregation measures to avoid those allegations involved the non-groper ostentatiously clutching a book or newspaper with both hands at shoulder level.

The demands of the investors come in the form of a petition similar to one tendered last year, but which won only 41 per cent approval when it was put to the company’s 14,000 shareholders.

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