I had a first time experience in Japan yesterday. I just came to Japan with the wife and kids (all Japanese citizens) a couple days ago. I have been here quite a few times. I’ve maxed out a couple tourist visas over the years as well as some shorter trips. All in all I’d say I’ve spent about a year of my life in Japan.
Yesterday, the morning after we arrived my son and I woke up pretty early due to jet lag. I decided to go by Lawson on the way to the park to let him play around for a bit. I am a blonde haired blue eyed white guy so I kind of stand out. We were in Lawson and I was grabbing a coffee and he was grabbing a snack. All of the sudden I heard this powerful voice yelling right behind me. Startled, I turned around and saw a guy (35-40 years old) staring at me yelling at the top of his lungs. I don’t understand Japanese fluently but I get around just fine. I could tell he was targeting me and whatever he was yelling wasn’t good. I looked him in the eye and turned to my son and said let’s stay away from this guy and find a snack. While walking away I definitely heard “shiin ne”. I’ve lived in big cities in the US and have had some events like this happen although I usually wasn’t the one targeted. I am not one to get scared too easy so we just continued shopping. Any time we were in view of this guy he would start yelling at us/me again. We grabbed our stuff and checked out and continued our day.
Of all the time I have spent here I have run in to the random drunken person who spewed some stuff at me but nothing like this. The guy didn’t seem drunk. It seemed like a either a mentally unstable person or someone on drugs.
I guess the reason I am posting is to see if this is a more common thing nowadays. We haven’t been here since covid started and it caught me by surprise. My wife’s family tells me that random acts of violence and confrontations are a little more frequent these days. Does this seem to be true? Has anyone else had an experience like this?
3 comments
No, it’s not common at all. Been living in Japan for the past 2.5 years and visited many times before that. I am very similar to your description of yourself and family. Never had a problem like this anywhere in Japan, even when traveling into the inaka.
Yes, I think so too: there are more aggressive nutcases recently. I have had various experiences with them, but it helps to be confrontational yourself and bark back.
If that’s what you wanted to know.
If you think about it, imagine how many drugged out, drunk, or just absolute freaks are in cities in the west daily. You’ve just possibly experienced one in Japan.
Perhaps he was such a fan of your good looks he couldn’t contain himself and had to scream at the top of his lungs? Perhaps he was practicing his heavy metal screaming skills, in order to impress a girl he fancied on tinder?