Foreigner climbs onto FamilyMart roof in Shibuya; yells 'I did it!' before police step in

Aug 15, 2024 21:50

With foreign visitors to Japan at an all-time high, there have also been more incidents where people from overseas have been behaving badly, giving rise to a new term being used in the local media: meiwaku gaikokujin.

Translating as “nuisance foreigner," this term pops up whenever a non-Japanese individual acts out in public, breaking rules and disrespecting the local culture. We’ve seen it used by media when foreigners gathered in great numbers at a Mount Fuji Lawson, and today it’s also become a hot topic, this time in relation to another convenience store — FamilyMart.

This “Nuisance Foreigner” incident took place at the FamilyMart in Udagawa-cho near Shibuya Center Gai in Tokyo.

Convenience stores are an iconic part of Japanese daily life that draw foreign visitors like moths to a light, but on the night of Aug 7, this individual went one step further by actually climbing up to the roof above the brightly lit signboard and squatting in front of the windows of the Shakey’s Pizza joint above the convenience store. With the lights out inside Shakey’s at the time, the incident would’ve occurred sometime after it closed at 9:30 p.m.

Eyewitness reports say the man, who was wearing a white T-shirt, climbed onto a signboard at ground level in order to access the roof, but as he was unable to climb onto it, his friend assisted by pushing another signboard alongside it, where he also climbed up to join him. His friend, wearing a black T-shirt, then squatted to give the man in a white T-shirt a lift on his shoulders, allowing him to climb onto the roof.

At this time, a staff member came out of the store and gestured to them to get down, but they ignored his requests, with the man and his friend yelling out something like “I did it!” or “We did it!” Their triumph was short-lived, though, as the cheers turned to calls of “Get down, get down!” and “Police are on their way!” as the friend on ground level spotted police officers approaching. The man on the roof didn’t make it down before officers arrived, though, and so he and his friend, along with another friend in a white T-shirt, who’d likely been taking photos from across the street, had to face the police.

▼ Video of the incident.

While verbal warnings were issued by police, it’s unclear whether further action will be taken. One thing that is for certain is the fact that these “nuisance foreigners” are giving all foreigners a bad reputation in Japan, where formality, restraint and consideration for others is part of what makes the nation so appealing to visitors.

These values form the basis for wa, a concept at the heart of Japanese culture that literally translates as “peace” or “harmony” but is so tied in with the Japanese way of thinking that it’s also used interchangeably to mean “Japan." It’s the reason why people refrain from saying what they really think, consider others above themselves, and prioritise the group above all else — all in the name of maintaining wa or “harmony” with others.

This ethos is in direct opposition to the actions of meiwaku gaikokujin, angering locals who toe the line in their everyday lives. The flouncing of rules by foreigners is often accompanied by another term, yaritai hodai, which literally translates as “doing what you like as much as you like“, another selfish trait that flies in the face of Japanese morals. So next time you’re in Japan and think it’s a good idea to climb onto the roof of a convenience store for a photo, you might want to take a moment to think like a local and refrain from doing what you want, for the sake of others around you.

Source: FNN via Yahoo! News

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Foreigner climbs onto FamilyMart roof in Shibuya; yells 'I did it!' before police step in