Quick rant: my spouse (m) and I (f) were walking through Shinjuku station with a local friend (f) to grab lunch. As we walked by the west exit, an older Japanese man punched me hard in the ribs next to my right breast. It was a well aimed punch as I was wearing a small backpack, so he managed to hit just between my arm and bag as I walked by.
I was shocked. When I turned to look, he raised both his fists and shook them in my face. In retrospect, I wish I’d grabbed his hands and yelled for a guard, but I just hurried away, and he disappeared into the crowd.
My spouse was furious, and our friend wrapped her arm around me protectively for the rest of our walk through the station. I’ve never had an issue in stations or crowds before, and I’m careful to be polite and stay out of the way, so this was a first.
ETA: I didn’t post this to scare anyone away from Shinjuku station or from traveling in Japan in general. I’m feeling a bit raw about it, that’s all.
43 comments
Unfortunately this has been a thing in Japan for quite a while now. For some twisted reason these people will punch random strangers (some of them target foreigners) knowing that they will most likely get away with it due to the victim being in shock.
Sadly there is nothing much we can do about it. Usually the law and police would be stacked against foreigners, physically retaliation will land you into bigger trouble than the actual culprit. If it happens again the only thing you can do is yell for help and try to keep track of the culprit . Yelling “butsukariya” may help too
Oh my goodness I am so sorry this happened to you! No one deserves that and I hope you’re taking care of yourself, OP. Sometimes the shock takes a while to set in.
Whoa I’m reading about how this is a thing in crowded places in Japan on another thread. Apparently these guys target women and if you hit them back or get physical you can be charged with assault. Most often they are found in crowded train stations. They will claim it was an accident. What BS.
I would follow the guy and “BUTSUKARIYA” for like 10 full minutes while pointing at him. I have zero shame so I’m not even exaggerating.
Edit: I’m so sorry this happened to you and hope your ribs are okay. May the rest of your trip bring peace and happiness!
The old man was most likely a Butsukari ojisan – meaning an old man that purposely bumps into (usually women) at a station there’s a[wiki page on this situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butsukari_otoko). Unfortunately, it is common and there isn’t much you can do unless you are able to get a guard and explain what happened , sorry this happened to you – I’ve had similar happen to me
It happens and it’s a friggin shock and there’s no good reason it happened. A few years ago I was in Ikebukuro station and a guy was shoving through people knocking them down then when he tried to shove me I stood firm(I’m also 6’1 and large) and he stumbled back, his next move was even crazier. He yelled at a lady to get the hell out of her way and swatted her phone out of her hand then her kid in her stroller started to cry and the guy got in the babies face and yelled don’t fuck with me. Then stormed off shoving more people. All the while he was holding a flip phone up to his ear. Everyone was shocked including my friend and myself. We made sure the lady and her kid were ok then we being two white guys were confronted by the police and taken to the Koban. The lady came with us and argued with the police for a few minutes that we didn’t do anything and we finally got to leave because the crazy guy tried to push someone off the platform and cops got him there. In 14 years of going back and forth this by far the craziest thing we’d seen in a train station. Craziest thing was right outside Shinjuku station when the guy set himself on fire over the military rule changes in June 2014.
Having been randomly struck like this while traveling (and even once at home!) in a large crowds I learned to just start practically screaming in English or whatever you native language is.
I never say anything threatening, just as loudly as possible “he just hit me!”
If nothing else it will warn your friends what just happened but often locals will help you look out and offer to help (one said they saw what happened and would help file a police report) others just checked if I was OK.
Obviously when a guy came up and started getting my face saying racist things I just walked away, but when they have already advanced to violence, shouting is acceptable, especially in a large crowd. And generally you won’t get in trouble for just shouting, whereas physically defending yourself may end you up in hot water.
Someone did that to me in shibuya a few years back and I just rocked them in the face and broke their nose and then jogged off. Don’t recommend doing that, necessarily but whatever.
This is so terrifying to hear, especially as a pregnant woman about to visit Japan in 1.5 weeks. D:
I was in Japan last month and had 2 guys shoulder check me (I’m a woman). After reading these replies I’m wondering now if it was on purpose.
I have seen a similar incident in my country. A Japanese man, tall and bigger than average Asian, randomly shoulder banging into passersby in crowded area and sometimes sticking out his foot to trip them. He was walking in a pretty fast pace (surprising he can do these so naturally) so most of the victims thought it wasn’t deliberate.
I didn’t even read the entire post but as soon as i saw the punching i was like “ why the hell does this keeps happening to foreigners “? OP there has been a history of the same kind of incidents reported on this sub( look it up but you aren’t the only one. I heard that they specifically target foreigners because they know that most foreigners doesn’t speak japanese and respond back.)They even have a word for people that indulge in this ( I forget what it’s called)
Is this what happened to me? It’s a bit different but one time I was walking through a crowded station and a guy was pacing around to the side of the path, and once I was walking past he seemed to do everything he could to walk directly in front of me to cut me off. Like he walked towards me from the side, walked sort of next to me for a few steps and then had to speed up in order to do like a u-turn in front of me. I don’t think we bumped into each other, but he definitely got up in my space on purpose.
Not trying to be rude, but are the women that are targeted typically petite and small in stature? I wonder if they would do the same to a taller and/or larger woman.
I’ve found that I’m largely ignored/avoided in public and I’m wondering if it’s due to my size (average height but large frame/overweight). I feel like these ass wipes purposely scout out small women. Textbook definition of a predator. Disgusting
Seen this last year in person recently and it was sudden and violent as hell. One second you’re walking and the next second your breath has practically been taken out of you via sneaky assault. Within seconds the asshole is gone and if stopped with threats of police they have a defense of just bumping into you. Subtle psychopath behavior in massive crowds pushing the limits? Idk but I’ve seen these posts more often here and there in the past couple years.
In Nagoya I saw a guy block a footbridge and start screaming at a passby that he should go die.
The passerby got his phone out called the police and then filmed the rant.
In my home country (UK) you run into the occasional barger and blockers, but they’re more about pickpocketing, and begging rather than violence.
Oh damn. Sounds like South Korea. I live in Seoul and these kind of thing happen here too. And like for Japan, unless the police is right there in front of you when it happens will do nothing, even in that case might still do nothing.
This has happened to me 3 times in recent months having never happened to me in the last 8 years of living in Japan. I never knew it was a thing until I read some of the comments here. Luckily I am always dodging to get out of people’s way anyway but in these cases that wasn’t enough as they seemed to be aiming for me…ridiculous behavior!
OP so sorry this happened to you, it must have been frightening. It happened to me a few years ago in Hong Kong, the guy (elderly) punched me in the abdomen. I wonder if he was Japanese???
It happened to me from time to time in my twenties. Always an older and seemingly disgruntled dude. Muuuuuch rarer now in my 40s and tends to be about not paying attention more than exerting power in public.
If it makes u feel better. my wife is japanese and I got in a full on fight with this aggressive man going off at my wife about a bag.only happened a 3 weeks ago. The aggressive man didn’t realise I was her husband. He got right in her face. I was like fuck this and got into him.
Time to sell vests covered in sharp rusty razors 😮💨
It’s so gross and have read multiple such instances happening. Not sure what they get out it but surely they gonna get the same from me if that happens during my travel in next few months.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. No idea why he did it.
One way you may be able to catch the man would be grasping his arm, holding it up for all to see and screaming CHIKAN! (groper) and calling a guard. Well of course he technically wasn’t groping but you could maybe stretch the truth a bit cause his punch did land on your chest? The Japanese take groping seriously, and once a guy is accused of being a chikan the he is doomed.
Of course most people would be too shocked to come up with anything straight after being attacked; I would be too.
This was like something that happened a while back (albeit not physically like your incident) where Japanese men (usually older males) would walk behind a foreigner and pretend to sneeze. Sometimes using that as a way for them to spit on foreigners.
Im sorry for you!
Never heard about something like that… Ive went into crowdy Kyoto Tokyo this summer and Ive only met nice humans so only reading your story got me like ‘whaaaaaaattttt I thought its so safe and It felt so safe’
I’m sorry it happened to you OP! I’ve been to Japan 4 times and it’s never happened to me. I’m Asian though. I wonder if they only do it to obviously foreign-looking people (eg Caucasians?).
Omg something similar happened to me!! My boyfriend and I were just in Japan two weeks ago. And while we were walking to our platform to catch our bus at shinjuku station, I was basically TACKLED by some middle aged guy causing my phone to drop on the ground. The guy didn’t even turn around to say sorry or anything. I was genuinely so shocked and pissed that all I could do was exclaim “what the fuck?!”
I cannot believe this is a thing.
quite common.
Omg!!! I was just telling my friend this happened to me like last week in Tokyo. I was holding my camera against my ribs like kinda in between arm and chest and this guy just straight shoulder checked me so hard. It really hurt and I was like literally in shock bc it wasn’t crowded at all, he could’ve easily dodged me. Still have a bruise on my ribs
Tbh I thought it might’ve been racially motivated (I’m a small brown woman) but good? to know there’s a name for it at least…
An old salary man did the same thing to me too in Shinjuku station too. I was going up the stairs and he was going down I moved aside so he can have more space but he followed me and hit my rib so hard I was out of breathe for a second, it shocked me completely and I was in so much pain but I just kept walking because my train was going to be there anytime soon. There was a video on tiktok about a girl following a guy who was hitting every woman he passes by on the train stations too.
I was there recently and the same thing happened! Some old guy shouldered me really hard as we were walking the opposite was across the road! Didn’t realise it was a thing.
I had something similar happen a few months ago in Ibaraki. An old woman on a bike yelled at me to stop being on my phone while I was walking on the street (I was talking on my AirPods) and tried to make me drop my phone by punching my wrist. I was more shocked than anything.
Hearing how common this is is disgusting and terrifying
Awful. I haven’t experienced anything like this, but I have come across dozens of incidents of old men intentionally stepping into my path or staring me down as they charge their shoulder into me even though I’m well to the correct side of the walkway.
Luckily I am (1) a man and (2) have no problem shoulder checking these assholes back to the imperial era they so clearly desire a return to.
This post is inspiring me to put some punk style spikes on the straps of my backpack for my trip. Wtf…
So sad 😟
I live here and am a man. Last month it was a woman in her 50s who kicked me in the back because she didn’t like that I was walking down the escalator.
For context, there are posters up all over stations in Japan as a campaign against this.
I told station staff, dashed after her taking a video for evidence and ran ahead of her into the police box.
Despite her screaming that she hates all foreigners and wishes they’d be forced out of Japan, then openly admitting she’d assaulted me, the police, after berating me for recording her and belittling my perfectly acceptable Japanese level (as I had asked him to repeat a question he’d, I feel purposefully, asked at high speed to stump me – “this is Japan, I’ve no obligation to speak slower”), gave me the option of being detained and questioned for a few hours (I’d told them I was in the town to see a concert starting 30 minutes later) or fully apologise, bowing to the perpetrator.
Begrudgingly, all I could do was apologise, as I could only see the situation getting worse from there on in for me.
I later consulted with a lawyer who confirmed that in such a case recording someone is not only perfectly acceptable, but his recommendation.
The point is, “police” here exist to protect Japanese. Not you. In any situation you’re already at an extreme disadvantage, even if you’re the victim. The only viable course of action is to remove yourself from the situation immediately.
Fair warning to all : this stuff is much more common in the Kansai region than Tokyo. I don’t know why, but over the course of a month, that was my experience. Osaka being the worst I came across
Japan has changed
This totally happened to me in Ginza the other day.
I was thinking it was because the old guy didn’t like the white guy Japanese woman couple
I am Japanese and often go to Tokyo, but never experienced and seen such a situation…
Do the good o’ Anya look around and then quick jab, but in all seriousness I’m sorry that happened to you. That person probably had some kind of mental illness or they were at the end of their rope. You should still report things like this to the local police in case that person is a repeat offender. Worse case the local police know to seek an eye out for a specific situation. Please submit a police report.
Something similar happened to a friend and I in Okinawa. We were passing an elderly woman on the sidewalk and as we tried to get around her he said “sumimasen” (excuse me). She slapped the back of his head as soon as we got ahead and start yelling at him (we had no idea what she was saying) but sped up and kept moving. We think she had a mental problem and was homeless because we’d see her again in the future, looking rough, but for all we knew she could have hated Americans or military presence on Okinawa (even though we were in civilian attire, we were easy to spot).
I’m sorry to hear that happened to you. I hope your ribs are ok. 😔