Comments

Posts

Jerks With Camera Top Japanese YouTube

These two videos showing a few guys acting like jerks inside a train station were uploaded to YouTube 5 days ago, and have since been viewed tens of thousands of times, making their way up the most-viewed rankings:

The Ticket Gate Dash

Moving Walkway

Most of the comments on the videos have been from Japanese users, a great many of whom don’t seem amused by the video guys. Here are a couple translations of comments:

You’ve been a huge nuisance to people! You aren’t children, so cut it out!

And some were a bit angrier:

“Next time please upload a video of yourselves jumping off Tokyo Tower! Your stupid parents can shoot the video.”

Others said the same thing in a slightly more direct manner:

“Please die.”

While still others liked to go with theats of having them arrested:

I’ve reported you.

While it’s pretty unlikely that they’ve ever get punished by the authorities because of these videos, sometimes Japanese netizen rage can have interesting results…

25 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 8, 2007 at 10:43 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags:

syd

“Please die.”
and
“Next time please upload a video of yourselves jumping off Tokyo Tower! Your stupid parents can shoot the video.”
but I repeat myself there.

Anyways, I hope someone kicks your ass in Kyoto, cause that’s the station, and if I see you there… then I’ll have the honour.
Kevin

-comment deleted by Admin: There’s absolutely nothing in that video that suggests the people were Americans [or foreigners], but the commenter decided that they had to be from the USA, sharing with everyone his hatred of “fucking Americans.” How about you read the fucking discussion rules for this site?
the overthinker

That walkway one is actually pretty amusing – can’t say the thought of doing that has never occurred to me. Of course the difference between me and these guys is that I never actually do it. Sounds like a Japanese guy doing the filming – is he instigator, or just roped in?

Many young Westerners DO act like children in Japan. First time away from home, in a really foreign country, earning some reasonably decent money – lots of them go crazy.

Syd – if you do notice these guys, I’d love to see a video of you walking past them on the walkway and pushing them off as you go by….
Greg

I’m not so sure they’re Americans… the videos are tagged with Kyoto University and mixi. Can’t really see the kids’ faces.
the overthinker

I tend to agree with Greg on a second viewing. They are in fact probably Japanese, as strange as that may seem to most of us. Guess I was swayed by previous posts of Americans etc doing dumb things, and Kevin’s comment. Though my point about young Westerners still stands, it is not perhaps relevant to this post….
Joseph K

Heh!
It’s actually kind of amusing, this weird racist undercurrent a lot of people have, blatantly assuming that just because they are acting kinda stupidly that they must be foreigners, and that that kinda thing would actually make any difference.

I can’t see how what these guys are doing is any more of a nuisance than say, a salaryman barging past you; an old woman walking really slowly right in the middle of a staircase that could easily fit two people across; an older drunk man practically falling asleep on top of you, even though he’s standing up, seemingly trying to force you to give up your seat just because he’s drunk; or these people that make the fast lane on the escalator stop and start because they never learned how to get off without pausing in anticipation…
and many other frustrating people’s habits that get in the way far more than a couple of guys momentarily running through the station or taking a different perspective to travelator use – which they aren’t even blocking.

Bah, anyway.

the overthinker

I suspect what would be alarming to your average person is not so much what they are doing (though that first video does look like gate-crashing [the Daigakusei Smash?]) but that it is very abnormal. A drunk guy falling asleep on your shoulder in a train is normal, expected. A drunk guy passed out in his own puke in the middle of Shibuya is also normal. But riding the travelators on the rails? How can you predict what people like that will do if you get too close to them? Best shun them, avoid them – too unsettling and unpredictable.

VonSkippy

But Joseph K, haven’t you learned yet that the Japanese people are the perfect example of the human genome? It’s impossible that they (or their younger generation) would do something imperfect or annoying or stupid.

//falls away from the keyboard laughing himself silly.
not genki

I totally dig this situtionistic approach. I totally do not understand those comments of Japanese people.

Today I was at Shibuya station where a man collapsed and puked while lying on his back and people were not helping him but stood around and laughed or looked annoyed. I can not speak Japanese, so at least I turned him around, so that he doesn’t suffocate.

I do not understand Japanese people anymore. I am not sure why I am even living here. I do not get their kind of “fun”, they obviously can not get a westerners sense for “fun”. In a way I think 99% of Japanese people are living in a retro-futuristic version of the 19th century, with the same social structures and the same sense of “fun”. It looks like a space station, but people are actually dumber than anywhere else in the world, and the system is something like a “friendly fascism”. WTF am I doing here?

Erika

Wow, way to be xenophobic, jackass.
Aekutopia

Just leave your ass ASAP, who beg you to live there??

Steve

Someone who does something childish in another country is automatically an “American”? Wow, when did this type of logic start setting in?
mudlouse

nah, you have people like this everywhere. they’re not out to harass anyone but the things they do for a joke often cause a nuisance.

these two videos are over-rated.

http://nonplayercharacter.blogspot.com/ NPC

I agree, and I think what they did isn’t really all that bad. Though I’m not entirely sure what they are doing at the ticket gate, are they cheating the ticket system or something? In that case I would get a bit annoyed, but I wouldn’t want to kill them or anything…

metal

okay for everyone saying that those kids are america.

I live in america and have lived here for all my life.

I’ve seen less than one percent of the people dress like that. The tight fit of their clothes is definitely asian, not american.

Secondly, their camera man is speaking japanese.If this was filmed by american kids I’m pretty sure the narration would be american.

Thirdly, if you follow the link to the youtube site, the title is written in japanese not english.

But thanks for proving to the world what a racist person you are. America has its faults, but if you’re going to blame them, make sure you do it when its actually their fault.

http://nonplayercharacter.blogspot.com/ NPC

Yes, that’s right, judge them by their clothes.
Think about your answers before you submit them.

metal

oh please.

go ahead and trty to pick apart the other two parts of my arguement.

And yes, the way people dress does tell you where they come from. When was the last time you saw a chinese person wearing a turban?

http://nonplayercharacter.blogspot.com/ NPC

I don’t have to, I’ve made my point.
Karisu

You’ve made no point. People can easily be judged by the clothes they wear and the things they do.

50% Nihonjin

Kudos to the guys for breaking from the conformist ways, I love the walkway one!
http://www.jumppoint.org Alex

Well… as most of you know I’ve never once encountered a Japanese person stepping out of line and telling a stranger they were being a social pariah. I can’t see that really happening either.

Frankly, I’d be happy to step in and make a fool of them. But that’s the culture, and its not up to us to decide how to act. We’re all just guests really.

If gaijin did this, it would be a different matter.
http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

Where were these shot? The walkway video looks like Hankyu Umeda station, but what about the ticket gate video? Based on the tags, I would assume somewhere in Kyoto. It kind of looks like one of the Keihan stations, or possibly the subway.
Sish

I don’t really see the problem here. Is this more of a societal difference?

In Canada where I live absolutely no one but security would care. Their fun seems to be 100% harmless and even a bit of a mindfuck (which everyone should get once in a while).
Peter

wat the hell?!?! y the hell is everyone so angry from japan? especially since japan has so much other way super crazy shit they do all the time without any notice! and just a little horse play and now everyone wants them to die? i don’t get the logic

shazzb0t

Probably because you aren’t Japanese.

Jerks With Camera Top Japanese YouTube

Recent Comments

Further Reading

Videos: Solar Eclipse Over Japan

Japanese H-IIA Rocket Carries South Korean Satellite into Space

Takeshi Kitano Compares Homosexuality to Bestiality?

Detective Conan Statues Vandalized

BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Photo: Tommy Lee Jones as General Douglas MacArthur

Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Japanese Woman Opens Cat Cafe in Vienna

Misquoting Charlie Chaplin in Japan

Categories

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs