clamp down 復習
電車内でのマナーはきちんと守りましょう。
Women doing their makeup on the train are ‘ugly,’ says Japanese commercial
In the latest display of entrenched sexism in Japan, Tokyu Corporation, a private railway company, has produced an ad suggesting it is not proper etiquette to apply make-up on the train. It is not unusual to see women commuters involved in elaborate grooming while on the subway, including doing things that require a steady hand, like applying liquid eye-liner and penciling in their eyebrows.
In the ad, two young women are applying lipstick and mascara in a relatively empty train car. Then a bare-faced actress, Sawa Nimura, mutters: “Women in the big city are all beautiful. But they can be ugly sometimes.”
Nimura, who has apparently just come from the countryside, jumps up in front of the women and begins dancing in a confrontational way. “Why can’t you do it before you get on the train?” she sings. “Your eyebrows restored and eyelashes multiplied, your transformation is witnessed.”
The 30-second ad concludes with a message that says: “Please do not put on makeup on the train.”
While Japan has all sorts of guidelines dictating considerate train behavior, from not wearing your backpack on your back to not talking on your cellphone or eating on the train, this latest directive is a bridge too far.
“I can understand it if Tokyu’s ad asks me to stop putting makeup on because makeup powder might spill over or its smell bothers others,” wrote one Twitter user, @ryudokaoruko, according to The Japan Times. “But a railway company has no right to tell me whether I look beautiful or ugly.”
It has since been retweeted more than 5,800 times.
“If the firm wants to clamp down on people who make others uncomfortable, it should create a commercial targeting people with body odors, or people who smell of alcohol or vomit,” wrote @tinasuke.
（一部抜粋）
今回取り上げる表現は、 “clamp down”です。
Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、 “to take strict action in order to prevent sth, especially crime”とのことでした。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「[違反・犯罪などを]（厳しく）取り締まる」と載っておりました。 “clampdown” や “clamp-down”と書いて、「気に強い取り締まり」という名詞といても使えるようです。
ちなみにclampのみでは、動詞で「留める，固定する，（駐車違反の車を）装置で動けなくする」などの意味があります。
また“clamp A on B”の形で、「Ａ（規制など）をＢ（人など）に課す，強制する」という意味になります。（Gomez）
