(edited for spelling mistake)
Should save this for the weekly rant thread but recently i’ve noticed a huge upswing in the number of men in their 20s dressed in an attempt to impress. They stand directly in front of the station gates and lock on to any female under 30 walking alone. They continue to harass the women for 200-300 meters. Some of the women are visibly shaken and the idiots don’t stop.
Apparently they are given a steep commission for any girl they recruit and that why they are as difficult to get rid of as gokibiri.
Police seem nonplussed and it’s just an unpleasant scene to watch. Additionally they stand in a really high traffic area and block people.
Also, it should be noted that they do this under a huge banner that says “No Scouting!” Guess it’s not working.
Has anyone else noticed an increase or is it just me?
35 comments
sorry reposted because of a spelling error.
one guy said i’m not the white knight to slay the dragon. i never inserted myself into a confrontation but i just thought it was an all
around shitty thing to do be done to them.
another person laughed at the comment of them visibly being shaken. one guy laid his hands on the woman’s wrists and she screamed and no one helped.
I mean if there are no punishments, fines, or warnings I guess no one would ever stop.
Summertime, in my experience, are when shops are busiest but it’s also the time when they lose the most girls. Why? I dunno you tell me.
It’s been going on for decades
Tell me the station and I’ll put on a wig and show them a good time
Nampa – isn’t it a national sport…
What I have noticed is dudes trying to make girls drink up faster – douchebags…
Ignore the commenters trying to call you a white knight for pointing out something you’ve noticed that’s troubling. Things like this are always important to discuss.
Street harassment is a problem not only to Japan, and while the guys here can be annoyingly persistent, there is some solace in knowing it rarely escalated to violence here – tho women in this subreddit do talk about things like stalking and being followed home unfortunately.
While there is no easy fix for this at the macro level, if you do see someone who is clearly distressed, just barking loudly for him to leave her alone always works without escalation; as they rarely want trouble.
Edit: Fixed typo
Been a resident of Tokyo and Shinjuku for almost a decade, this has been the norm the entire time I’ve been here. Seen a few good swings from girls who are at their limit or a bit drunk.
I remember during my eikaiwa days I met this 40 something Australian who looked like a proper creep when I first started. He then went on a rant about these scouts who harass girls around our nearby station. Had me thinking “oh wow. I guess looks are deceiving. He seems alright”
3 of us were invited to go drinking with him after work and we did. Got to the bar, the Australian downs 2 drinks in about 2 minutes and then immediately hits on every girl in the bar. Even those with dudes and those in groups.
After getting rejected by all (and asking them why) he suggests going to another bar. We’re all looking around like WTF but as the station is in that direction we decide to leave too. I kid you not, in the span of 10 minutes he hits on like 25 chicks and gets rejected by all. We then see a Japanese dude talking to a girl and he’s like:
“Ahhh I’m so fucking tired of these scouts harassing women. I really should call the police”
Oblivious to what he’d been doing the past hour. I called it a night there but the other 2 guys went with him to the next spot. Apparently it was just more of the same.
All I’ll say is he lived and worked (still lives and works?) around Sagami-Ono station. I’m sure this is enough for someone to work out who it is.
There tend to be 3 groups actually.
1. Scouts
2. Touts
3. Nampaers
Of those 3 the scouts are the least annoying because they’re paid in commission. If someone isn’t interested they need to move to the next target. They also tend to be extremely direct and to the point because spending time recruiting someone who’s not interested is waisted opportunity for them.
Sounds like you’re seeing touts and street nampaers, they tend to be the ones who’re more annoying in that they’ll try to actively change someone who’s not interesteds mind because success is different for them. So yeah touching and creepy following down the street if they think there’s any chance at all.
Are you sure you meant nonplussed?
In Shinjuku & Shibuya you can see that regularly sadly & yes it is disturbing as hell.
Most girls ignore them but some do stop. Not sure the proportion of Nampa & Scouting though but mostly scouting I guess.
Some times cops are vaguely doing something but they mostly don’t care.
I’m with you man. Used to see these scum at Shinsaibashi Station (Osaka). Fuck them all and the numpties in the replies excusing their behaviour.
Sex trade is almost exclusively yakuza domain and the police won’t do shit about the yakuza unless they get violent towards “normal” people Or do something so publicly that the police are forced to act. Welcome to Japan.
Also probably part of why they have become so much more aggressive recently is the border closures have cut off their most common source of sex workers, women from abroad.
Is this in Shinjuku or similar young people area and at night (like 6pm or later?).
If “dressed to impress” like in a shiny suit, they are likely hosts looking for customers or they could be “scouts” looking to recruit women for hostess or fuzoku. It sucks but they are skirting a fine grey line so its hard to just arrest them. Not really great to set a precedent of arresting someone for flirting.
I saw a dude walking parallel with a girl talking to her from Shinjuku station and it’s funny I actually thought they were together. Only noticed he was a scout (or something like that) once she got to the crossing and was completely stonewalling him – he turned around and left.
Must have been following her for a good 2-3 minutes.
Oh I saw that the other day something similar at Yokohama, west exit. I was waiting for a friend and wondering what that guy telling to the girl and also following her for some minutes. Then he gave up, walked around, tried to find someone else. I didn’t think of this until seeing your post
Dumb question, but what exactly are these creepy guys scouting for? Models or something?
All they have to do is ask the scouts if they’re interested in talking about our lord and savior jesus christ and maybe making a donation. they will disappear.
When this happens to me I start talking to them in English in a very cold tone, usually does the job. If they keep persisting I will lead them to a Koban.
It’s always been going on. No idea if there’s been more or not. The ones I’ve seen around Osaka don’t follow the girls at least.
They do this and are audio recording it so they can post it on the internet. It’s a fetish. This is a real thing. They have accounts on porn sites and twitter and post it for thousands of men who get off to it. Sometimes they even take pictures of the women they’re harassing.
Most of them are recruiting for the clubs or tricking women into porn. It’s disgusting. When I was younger, I would intervene… but after a while realized that it’s just overwhelming. Had one approach my minor daughters once and that ended up in the koban with charges placed.
Huh, this thread sure got brigaded overnight.
I’m female, so I usually either yell at the guy to get them to bugger off, or I’ll insert myself between them and take the girl’s arm (if she’s receptive) and walk her away from him.
I don’t think that would work as well for a guy.. the girls may think you’re another one.
tale as old as time
song as old as rhyme
tokyo and the creeps
This has been going on for decades
This literally sounds like Chiba Eki. They’re always there, but there’s one guy in particular who is there literally every day. I wish he would change his designer bag from time to time though. I’m getting bored coming down the escalator every time now.
I see this happen at Shibuya, in front of the little Police office next to the JR exit. Usually I say people should intervene when things get violent but in this case if the Police are doing nothing in response to this type of harassment then why should I bother and put myself in danger/eye of the Police?
The comments in this thread has one of the highest concentrations of female victim blaming and しょうがない I’ve ever seen, lol.
Really underlines the problem you’re illustrating. Discussing an observation that’s troubling is not “white knighting.” Sweeping these kinds of societal issues under the rug is how these things persist. The more a populace is aware of an issue and discusses it, the more likely something gets done.
So many people in here burying their heads in the sand. It’s almost like this issue is pervasive across Japanese society, and even foreigner communities in Japan.
Now downvote and crucify me for daring to agree with a message that doesn’t paint Japan as some egalitarian paradise. I swear every Japan subreddit is a fucking downvote farm, it’s so toxic, people get blasted on the daily for asking harmless questions and making observations they’d like to discuss. Y’all are ridiculous. Treat women and each other with respect, its not hard.
what’s a gokibiri?
These people, scouts and nanpa, rely on the idea that if you approach sufficient numbers of women, at least one will eventually give you their contact details, or whatever it is you are out for. Like a door-to-door salesman, or scam emails. Just up the quantity, and eventually you will get something.
This results in that an extreme amount of approaching is done.
Mate, fuck what these nerds are saying. If you see someone in a situation that’s troubling you can just ask the oniichan for the time and that will distract him long enough for the young lady to make her escape.
What station? Ikebukuro?
I got this almost every time I walk near a station alone lol I’m already used to it ;-;
Is there an explainer for what’s happening here? They’re scouting for sex workers or are they club promoters? (This might sound dumb but in my country promoters are also really obnoxious like this bc they get paid based on how many girls they can bring into the club bc guys will pay more if there are a lot of girls there)
Also what’s the significance of the guy being dressed to impress?
I’m just trying to figure out if this happened to me or not lol once a pretty handsome well dressed guy came up to me and my friends and invited us to a party bc we spoke English? It felt odd and we declined but I’m just wondering was he a “scout” or just a dude hitting on us lol I’m new still