00:00:02 John Daub: So I'm in front of the taxi stand at Tokyo Station as some tourists get into a cab. Recently there has been some staff at Narita Airport handing out this flyer to people visiting Japan. And I wanted to go over this to you. There are an increasing amount of unauthorized illegal taxis here in Tokyo that are worrying people in the industry because there's a lot of risk for those that do take one of these.

00:00:33 John Daub: You can tell which ones are illegal and not illegal by the license plates here. You can see here the circle means that's the correct one. Taxi license plates are green or they have this white with an exploding star design behind it and a green frame around it. But the white taxis are the normal cars. And if you see a taxi with this license plate color, it is a good thing.

00:01:33 John Daub: And they wanted people to know that because of an increased number of unauthorized taxis. It's sort of expected because right now Japan has a problem with not enough workers, not enough taxi people in the industry. In particular, for the last couple of decades since I've been here, I came here 25 years ago in '98, the taxi drivers are the vast, vast majority. I'm talking like 95% of them were over the age of 65. Usually people that were retired looking to do a side job or a retirement job, like they didn't want to give up work completely, but they still wanted to do something.

00:02:15 John Daub: And usually before the world of GPS and navi systems, navigation systems, it was really hard to get to your destination if you didn't speak Japanese, in particular, if you didn't know the area. Because sometimes the taxi drivers would rely on the passenger to tell them where to go. You could give them the address. And they'd have to find it on a map or call on the CB and try to figure out where to go, going left, right, left, right. I've had some unusual situations with taxi drivers decades ago. You don't get that anymore thanks to navigation systems.

00:02:47 John Daub: But because of the lack of workers here in Tokyo, we're getting less taxis. Now, this is an authorized spot. This is the taxi stand outside of Tokyo Station right there. There's the JR Tokyo Stand right there. So all these tourists are getting a taxi. They're getting off of the Shinkansen. They're going to their hotel. They're going someplace. And the taxis come around.

00:03:09 John Daub: Now, they aren't all black. This one is a white taxi. And you can see the license plate has that color on it. It's got that exploding star pattern, like exploding rainbow, I guess you could call it. That is an official taxi. So that's how you know from the number plates. This cab is a different color. So you can't tell just by the colors or not. But the number plate.

00:03:37 John Daub: Again, they used to have their names on the dashboards, the taxi drivers. They don't have that anymore. This is another cab. This one is a little bit bigger in scale. You can see this maybe fits six people. If you have more than five people, that's another issue. If you have more than four people, three in the back, one in the front, you have to get a second cab. So they won't squeeze you in. It's not a question of service. It's a question of breaking the law. That's a green light. It's a license plate. So it is an official cab. Just little things that tourists should definitely be aware of.

00:04:15 John Daub: The articles are running now in the newspapers. Check it out. This comes from... This is a really good article from Yomiuri Shimbun, a very respectable site. They have an English site. A lot of the newspapers in Japan are starting English publications. And let me read this to you. Unlicensed taxis rampant around Narita Airport has foreign visitors return to Japan.

00:04:49 John Daub: Numerous unlicensed taxis at and around Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture are targeting international visitors whose numbers have been quickly rebounding since the government lifted corona-related restrictions. The road transportation law prohibits drivers from private cars without taxi licenses from carrying others as a paid service. Doing so is called shirotaku (white plate taxis). In Japanese, or driving with a white license plate, many shirotaku drivers are believed to be Chinese-speaking people and reservations and payments are often said to be made online. Well, you get the picture. I put a link in the description to this article.

00:05:22 John Daub: A lot of the problems have been coming from tourists from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Chinese-speaking tourists from Chinese-speaking taxi drivers. They might not just know the law. And another day... They do have some examples here. A Chinese-speaking man picked up tourists. The driver just pulled up to Narita, and he just started putting suitcases into the back of his taxi. And the tourists didn't know what was going on, so they said, oh, okay, he's a taxi driver. And then he just took them around the site, and he didn't charge any money. And apparently the newspaper caught up to this driver, and he had no regret or remorse at all for what he was doing. I guess he should, maybe. Shame.

00:06:19 John Daub: But it's happening more and more. And it's a strange... Toru Toru Poko writes in here, strange hobby. It is very strange, but people... Look, I was picked up when I was hitchhiking. I've had about 70 rides over the course of my time in Japan. It's like, why do people pick up? They're bored. They want something to do. They want company. They want to talk to people. They're driving anyways. They want somebody to talk to in the passenger seat to stay awake, or sometimes, you know, it's interesting. They're curious. There's lots of reasons why people do it, but it's wrong.

00:06:50 John Daub: And which makes me wonder if hitchhiking is going to be outlawed in Japan. I don't know. It's not right now. It's actually a mode of transportation in rural areas where people will hitchhike because there is no public transportation. And, you know, hitching rides from neighbors, there's a way to get around in the countryside, which is why it probably isn't illegal to this day.

00:07:11 John Daub: Now, everybody knows these taxis here. These are the taxis with the shape of the English cabs, but they're much smaller. There's a more traditional... What is that? A Toyota Crown, which is the old ones. And this is the new version of the taxis here, right there. So that taxi right there has the new style to it. It's a lot bigger. It has more space for tourists to be able to put their luggage inside of there. So that's a good thing. And also inside, I noticed that these new English-style taxis also have a lot more headroom. So if you are over 6'2", or 190 centimeters, you have a much more comfortable ride than this cab that just pulled in, which is probably made for people that are about 6'1", or less. And a lot more legroom. That's a super deluxe.

00:08:13 John Daub: And the way it works here, there's a taxi queue. So everybody queues up. But I want to tell you a little secret here. Alright, I don't queue up. Well, I do if there's not a long line. But sometimes when I'm coming back from the location shoots, the queue is very long. So what I do is I walk across the street. This is Tokyo Station. There's so many taxis. I walk across the street where you see that white wall there. And I stay there. And I get a cab within usually a minute. And I avoid the line, which is sometimes 20 minutes long. It just depends on the day of the week and when you come back and the time of day. But yeah, I kind of avoid it. But you also need to have less luggage. Because if you have luggage, the taxi line is pretty convenient. You don't have to move.

00:09:06 John Daub: This is all lined up. These are all taxis in a queue. And you can see they're moving around. And it's the same at night. It's the same at Narita Airport. It's the same at Haneda. It's the same at all the major train stations in Japan. They have taxi queues. So if you're in front of a station, they're going to tell you just because there's a taxi there, it's not cutting in line, peso. It's actually being smart because there's no line out there. You got that? No line. It's true. You can't cut in a line that doesn't exist. I created my own line. It's like, all right, peso. I'll put it in terms you might understand. It's like going to Disneyland and you see a long line at Space Mountain, but you're riding a ride next to it that has no line. Then you're telling me I'm cutting at Space Mountain. Both rides are fun, but that ride had no line. All right? Next time you make a comment like that, be prepared to be timed out. And you're a moderator. Fake anger. It's some drama.

00:10:12 John Daub: The other thing that you can do here is take an app. It's called the Taxi Go app. There's a couple of them. Uber is one of them. This is from the article. Uber and other apps are available in Japan, but they can only be used to call licensed cabs. So all Uber cabs are licensed. It's not just some dude or person that's trying to make a living. They're licensed taxi drivers that are part of some group. And Uber in Japan is different than abroad because they're run by the Japan taxi industry now. They weren't always. But they're actually... Uber is like luxury cabs. So you end up paying about 20% more, at least the last time that I checked.

00:11:16 John Daub: I might be working on a taxi episode. So I'm going to get permission to do something like that. I was going to jump into a taxi and start... Actually, I've done that before. But it was like at the end of it. And I was getting out of it. I would start the stream while I was getting out of the taxi running for the Shinkansen. So I've done stuff like that.

00:11:49 John Daub: The articles... I've been curious because... Again, this is the flyer that's being handed out. This flyer is being handed out to everybody at Narita Airport. Well, that's arriving into Japan. It's not just anybody. It's tourists arriving at Narita. Narita seems to be the biggest problem. Haneda is more... When you enter into Haneda, I think it's more regulated. Or Narita is more like the Wild West. It's out there in Chiba. So I guess there's more space. There's more ways for people to get in. And there's a lot of traffic. It's mostly international tourists coming into Narita. There's not a lot of domestic. So there's more chances to slip through the cracks at Narita, I think, than Haneda, which is kind of both here.

00:12:28 John Daub: Let's go over... Hey! Back it! Okay, good. John doesn't like to be front and center. Let's put this flyer front and center. Let's go over it really quickly together. Again, the flyer is in Chinese, also in English, because we know that tourists are coming here from China. And that's been the biggest problem. Look for these license plates. A warning, should you be injured in an unlicensed taxi, you may not be protected by any insurance coverage. You might be. You might not be. You probably won't be. Unlicensed taxis are not reliable in safety. You don't know if the driver's been trained. If you say, follow that cab, maybe he's not trained in following cabs or detective, defensive driving skills. So, you know, pick your driver carefully. For safety, use legally licensed drivers. And you just don't know who these people are.

00:13:25 John Daub: So, you know, maybe you could drive a taxi for a day as a live stream. That's not a... I have to get a license first. I want to learn how... Let's put it like this, okay? I want to see how long it takes and what is required to become a licensed taxi driver. And then I will consider it. How about that? I think you've opened up a door, Toro Toro Porco, here. John, would you ever try to be a rickshaw runner? Maybe. I'm not in... Those people, including... Like, it doesn't even matter the age of those ricksh... Those jinrikisha (rickshaw) drivers in Asakusa. They are in darn good shape. I would consider it. You could pick up followers as a form of meet and greet. That's a really good idea. I like this. All right. Keep it coming. No, but I like the direction of this. This is really cool.

00:14:24 John Daub: Yesterday, I was at Shibuya Crossing. And you can see here just that there's so many tourists here in Japan right now. It's extraordinary. You just want to jump into a cab. But I'm finding the Yamanote Line is also back... Has now resumed again. The construction at Shibuya Station is over. So no issues there. There's just not enough cabs. I think Tokyo is okay. But I was in Hiroshima this summer. And I tried to jump in a cab. And you had to wait 15 minutes. There's not a lot of cab drivers. Even at the taxi stand in front of Hiroshima Station, there weren't enough cabs. It was embarrassing. I could have walked there. And the taxi driver was very apologetic. He says that they just don't have staff in Hiroshima for taxi driving.

00:15:21 John Daub: Look at this driver. He's ambitious. He has the door open for the next riders. He knows the drill. Keep the door open. Passengers jump right in. They tell them the destination. Turnover. You save 15 seconds here and there over the course of a year. It's not that bad. It adds up to a few hours. So there you go. That's pretty smart. The door is auto closed. You don't have to touch anything. But I do recommend that you use your seat belt in there. Because they're quite wide. They're very spacious inside these new cabs. Here you can see there's a lot of foot room. And the one thing is that they have monitors on the back of the cab. So you can pay in cash. But you can also pay in credit card. And all of these taxis have different ways to pay, I've noticed. It's almost somewhat confusing.

00:16:12 John Daub: Some of them have a little panel that's connected to the dashboard that they can move around with the wire attached to it. You put your credit card on there. You can touch the top of it. The newer taxis have... Oh, look. He's got it opened up. Let's see if we can see it on the inside. Oh, yeah. There it is. You can see they have monitors on the back of the screen here. And then this one has on the bottom of the taxi here a... I don't want to film him. He was looking at me. They have USB wires. But also, on the side of the monitor, there's a place where you can put your credit card in there. And some of them have this. You touch your payment method. Oh, yeah. I just saw the... Inside the taxi, he had a place where you could just insert your credit card on the back. Or you could touch your IC card. I just saw that in there. But they all put them in different places. There's no uniform way to do this. So you can't tell an illegal cab by the payment either. Some of them have these little panels. Some of them are in the monitor. And then some of them are attached to the side. And then some of them just take your card and then they do it in the front too. For the older taxis. But you notice that they're all not the same.

00:17:27 John Daub: You know what? If you and David come to visit in Japan, I will pick you up in a taxi. One way or another. Let's put it like this. I'll come and try to meet you guys. I'll try my very best. Depends on when you're coming. I appreciate that. That's our brothers from another mother's. Yeah. So this is the old school taxi. So you just can't tell. In a taxi queue, you also can't pick which taxi. The only time you could pick and say, no, that taxi is too small. But you can't say, no, I want to get the new taxis. Like these ones with more headroom. Unless you're like seven foot tall. You need to have a good reason to reject a cab and a taxi line. Because they're all the same.

00:18:21 Fan: Hi. How did you... You tracked... Yes. Wow. I noticed you. I'm a big fan. Thank you so much for the videos. Helped me a lot. This is my first trip here.

00:18:31 John Daub: Oh, welcome. Here you go. Here's a... You found me card. Thank you so much. Where are you from?

00:18:36 Fan: Originally from Iraq. But I live in Canada.

00:18:39 John Daub: Oh, awesome. You want to say hi to everybody?

00:18:41 Fan: Yeah, of course. Hey, hello. Hello, everyone. Hi. Hey. Come visit Japan.

00:18:52 John Daub: Well, what's been your favorite thing here?

00:18:55 Fan: To be honest with you, everything is amazing here. It's a totally different... It feels like a different world in here, you know? It's a beautiful country. I encourage everybody to visit at least once in their life.

00:19:10 John Daub: Oh, yeah. At least once, maybe 10 times would be good.

00:19:14 Fan: Yeah, at least. It's been amazing. I'm leaving tomorrow to other cities. And yeah, everything is amazing. Cool. I just wanted to say thank you so much.

00:19:24 John Daub: No, I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Have a good trip.

00:19:30 Fan: Thank you. Oh, sure, sure. That's okay. Thanks so much.

00:19:36 John Daub: You're welcome. Have a good trip. Well, that was nice. That was very nice.

00:19:44 John Daub: So, yeah, that's about it. That's all I really had to talk about with you. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. And I'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Because I know it so well, but be aware of illegal taxis. All right. It's just something that I really hadn't thought much about, because we all think that Japan is an extremely safe country, but that's not always the case. There are times where some taxis, you know, have drivers that are unlicensed, and it can be a little bit scary because you don't know who that driver is. And I think they took some of the names of the passengers, the names of the people off of the dashboard of the taxis. So, that's been an issue, as well. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below and I'll be happy to try to answer that and have a safe trip when you come to Japan. Mata ne.

00:20:28 Fans: Oh, hey. How are you? We watched you. Where are you guys visiting from? LA. LA.

00:20:39 John Daub: Okay. Awesome. You're welcome. Have a safe trip.

00:20:50 John Daub: Ellis will be happy that I'm doing this too. Ellis. I brought a copy of it. There's a Black Friday sale on Blu-ray discs. I think we have about 100, 150 of them, 100 left. They're on sale at store.onlyinjapan.tv. If you buy two, you get a little bit more of a discount and it's for a limited time, folks. So if you haven't gotten one already, maybe get another one as a present. Really appreciate it as a gift in this month. If you really want to support the channel, thank you. This month's postcard is great for the refrigerator. Put it on there. It's Autumn Colors from the world's oldest hotel. Every month there's a new postcard. Really appreciate it. All right, everybody. Be safe out there. I'll see you in the next live stream. New episode is coming. If you're a traveler or a member on Only in Japan, on Only in Japan Go Here, you'll get an advanced early access to it as well as Patreon. So I probably will upload this tonight and it'll be released tomorrow on Tuesday. So see you tomorrow. Mata ne. For real this time. David Kimura. Oh, wait. David Kimura is here. Look, we're getting positive. David Kimura, something for Leo and Kanai. I will buy. Actually, that's a good idea. I'll see if I can get him a burger with that. Thank you, David. Kanai likes the burgers from the Yaesu Chika. I think it's a Bubbies burger. Maybe I'll get her. And Brandania is here. Miss you, Brandania. I hope you can come back to Japan soon or we'll be in Hawaii soon. Maybe sooner than that, maybe. But yeah, thanks again, guys. Take care. I'll see you tomorrow.