OK, I'm struggling a bit to get where the author is going with this. It doesn't help that a simulated event (RapeLay) is compared to an actual crime (groping), or even that the stated "epidemic of chikan is an enormous problem" is supported by a mere survey. (Compared to what Japanese women endure in terms of, say, sexual harassment in the workplace, the more headline-grabbing chikan problem seems exaggerated.)

Does the author not understand that rape is a pretty basic sexual fantasy--of both men and women? Is the concept of BDSM unfamiliar, or does the author find it equally "appalling"? That is not to say the game is not tasteful or inoffensive, but isn't what happens in private between consenting adults--or with one adult as with this game--becoming more and more an accepted part of American life? People find homosexuality offensive and even dangerous and want to legislate it; does the author support that point of view, too?

The comparison with Grand Theft Auto is appropriate, but not for the reasons the author likely believes. Violence is a human trait and the game allows otherwise peaceful people to experience that sensation. Likewise, power relations are a part of sexuality, and while the game might be a shoddy, tacky version of that it is nonetheless a representation of sex that some people might want to experience.

I guess I like to save my outrage for actual events. One from my time in Japan was the rape and murder of a foreign woman by a Japanese man and the refusal of police and prosecutors to do anything. There was the systematic racism and misogyny endemic to Japanese society involved, but why focus on that when there are crappy games to condemn?