00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings and welcome to Tokyo, the safest city in the world. But every now and then, people are concerned about scams, crimes, things that happen when you're traveling. And in this episode, I wanted to talk about that. Should you even be concerned about crime in Japan? Answer, you should be concerned about crime just about anywhere because this stuff can happen. But this is one country where you probably don't have to worry about it as much compared to, I don't know, the United States. So we're going to talk about these crimes and scams tourists watch out for when you do come to Japan. Knowing a little bit about it might save you a little bit of trouble. So let's just say that because it's also an interesting topic to talk about here.

00:00:45 John Daub: The first scam that we're going to get into are the nightlife scams. And this is the one that's probably the most prevalent. How you doing, everybody? Nice to see you here. People coming into the chat. Yeah, you know, Kabukicho (歌舞伎町，red-light district) may be one of the most concerning areas in all of Tokyo. It's got a reputation. It's cleaned up quite a bit over the years. But still, the drink spiking and overcharging is something that I think has continued despite the Kabukicho cleanup. A lot of them are touts on the street that get you to go into a bar. You might be drunk before you even get there. You're a pretty suspect, easy victim. You go in there and then you find that your bill is extraordinarily high because you were talking to girls that you didn't know were actually paid or whose job it was to buy drinks on your account. This ends up becoming a really big pain in the neck for tourists. And it's a gray area. I don't know if it's legal or not. But you want to spend a couple of days arguing with the police and a business owner about this? I don't think so.

00:02:00 John Daub: So the best thing to do is to be very wary of drinking in nightlife places. Go to places that you know about, that you've scouted out. Not go to places that you haven't heard about. Nightlife in Tokyo can be a very, very bad thing. It can be a little bit, it can be a lot of fun. But it's important to go to places that maybe you've scouted out or you know about in advance and you've checked out reviews to make sure they're okay. Honestly, I don't go out and drink much anymore. I don't know how this has changed since the pandemic ended. But I know that this is still an issue. There are hidden cover charges sometimes. As a tourist, it's hard to know. And another reason for you to do a little bit of due diligence and check before you're going into places with a reputation like Kabukicho, like even Ikebukuro (池袋), Shibuya, some of the back alley places. Businesses might be struggling trying to do anything to turn a buck these days. And tourists are easy targets because you don't speak the language. Avoid touts, stick to reputable izakaya (居酒屋，Japanese pubs), public chain pubs and places recommended by locals. If you don't know, again, they're the safest for you to not get in any trouble here.

00:03:30 John Daub: This is a live stream. If you have any questions on this, you can go ahead and reach out to me and I will address this. This one. This is theft and pickpocketing. I was shocked by this one here. This is on the rise. Just this past, I think it was summer, a woman from Mongolia was caught pickpocketing tourists. So it's foreigners pickpocketing other foreigners from neighboring countries was caught pickpocketing a tourist, an American. And the police got her because they observed her doing it. But there were reports of pickpocketing in the area from days before. So I guess that's a good thing. I guess they finally got her. But there are a lot of neighboring countries or other countries that are coming here knowing that tourists are coming here, knowing that it's pretty easy going here. I mean, people are less suspecting of crime because you don't hear about crime in Japan. And these tourists are these visitors are also criminals. So sometimes the worst criminals are not the Japanese, but the other tourists or the criminal tourists that are visiting here to take advantage of Japan's reputation of being a safe place.

00:05:00 John Daub: It's very rare still to have theft in Japan. But theft and nonviolent crime is much more prevalent in Japan than violent crime, even though crime in general is quite low. Theft is probably what's going to take place the most and sometimes by other tourists, just something you have to be careful of. Busy trains like Yamanote Line (山手線，loop line) and Tokyo Festival, Shibuya Crossing. You really have to keep track of your wallet. It's easy to become complacent in a place like Japan. If you're in a crowded area like in Kyoto, especially known for tourists, I know that it is a pain in the neck to report anything to the police. It will take you a lot of time. You need to get the report for insurance anyways, but it still will take time out of your day and it's something that you want to avoid. So keep your bag zipped. Just be aware of your surroundings. I think that's the best way to do it.

00:06:30 John Daub: Toby (crow), do you see that? Talk about crime. He's still there talking about crime. And we have these birds which are criminals. Many of them believe them to be so. I'm one of them because I've seen them in action. I think they need to be. Yeah. What I'm talking about today, so we're going to keep this short and sweet. I don't feel comfortable anymore. Dark. I thought I picked the spot here with... You could just Google search it. I hate to pick on certain nationalities, but yeah, crows don't forget and by the way pigeon. There's a pigeon here. You should be aware that there are crows in the area I'm sure that you are pigeon this one right here. Looks like a and pigeons can be violent too. They gang up on you Japanese pigeons do there's a whole gang of them. I guess there's safety in numbers There's a bunch over there See it's not just me the article talks about in detail.

00:08:00 John Daub: We're talking about crime. So sometimes it's interesting I'm looking for crime here in the park. So nothing here Yeah, I'm in central Tokyo right now So at around 1 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday afternoon a police officer patrolling the grounds of the Senso-ji Temple (浅草寺) area in Asakusa says that he saw a 36 year old Mongolian woman approach an 81 year old American woman from behind while she was washing her hands in a chozuya (手水舎，purification basin). The basin of water located at the entrance of the temple. Yeah in Japan where visitors are supposed to symbolically purify their hands? Imagine a pickpocket at a temple. That's crazy the police said the Mongolian woman was carrying a jacket so as to obscure her hands and after getting close enough she reached into the American tourist's shoulder bag and removed her wallet which contained approximately like $60 in cash while the older woman back was turned. That's a petty cash but still you never know. I mean obviously she's picking someone who's a little bit older probably doesn't speak any Japanese and probably won't suspect it or feel it as much. I don't know but it's awful that this stuff happens here in Japan.

00:10:00 John Daub: Number three on our list is the ATM credit card fraud. This is happening more? I'm hearing about it more. I don't have any statistics on this but I hear this happening more. Skimming is a problem in the US where these again that there's a power in these touch credit cards because sometimes we have sashi-komi (挿し込み，card insertion) which is inserting you can do touch or sashi-komi. I always try to do touch but I have one credit card that's only sashi-komi which is insertion and I'm always a little bit worried about that. I'm kind of looking to see if there's a skimmer or something because this is something that was unknown to Japan until a couple of years ago and seems like Like, foreigners are installing this into Japan. I don't know how this works, but it's something that you should be aware of. I don't think you're going to see them at ATMs. They're patrolled by the police, and they are maintained several times through the day. Even on the days off, somebody comes in and cleans once a day, usually. They can be filthy, these vestibules.

00:11:30 John Daub: Overcharging taxis. This is something that has been an issue recently. Recently, I've never experienced an overcharging, but I have had a taxi driver who did take a roundabout way. It just depends on the taxi driver. I'd say 95% of them would never do that. But I've taken enough taxis where I've had taxis, and I would say, like, why did you go this way? Don't you know, like, Yaesu Dori (八重洲通り) is a lot closer? Or if you take a left here, don't you know that it's a one-way street? You can't go there? Didn't you put this on the Google Maps, the navigation system? It's always... It's always a good idea, instead of telling them where to go, to give them the address and make sure that they punch it into the navigation system, especially if you don't speak Japanese. You can't guide a taxi driver who doesn't speak a lot of Japanese while they're... Seek a lot of English while you're driving. So it's a good idea that you make sure that it's in the navigation system and that you have it on Google Maps and you might be tracking it along. I do that in the taxis anyways. I'm always like... Like in Seinfeld, Kramer was always telling you about, like, shortcuts. You know, like, what's the fastest route to get around New York City? I'm kind of the same way. I like to find the roads that are shortcuts and the traffic patterns and know which is the fastest route. The more I drive in Tokyo, the more it's to my advantage. But... So I always have Google Maps open to see what the traffic patterns are, even if I'm not driving. I'm kind of just glancing at it.

00:14:00 John Daub: Advice for ATM... Using ATMs inside banks or convenience stores. This is probably a good idea. There are sometimes ATMs in bars. I discourage you from using that. Go in there. Go into the 7-Eleven or the Lawson's and use the ATMs there. Try not to use ATMs. You don't see too many of them. Like non-official ATMs. And I'm all about supporting small businesses and some of them are, you know, by the owner. But unless they're reputable, you just can't take the chance because that stuff could ruin your whole trip. So just be aware that this stuff does happen. You know, it's not rampant, but there are instances of it.

00:15:00 John Daub: This one is pretty interesting. This might get a couple of smiles out of the dudes here. I didn't know a lot about JK. Do you guys know what JK is? I'll explain a little bit after I talk about it. It's a schoolgirl business. It's really nasty stuff and street solicitation scams. This stuff has been increasing, in particular geared towards tourists. Some of them don't speak just a little bit of English and you get in trouble because this is a crime in Japan. Some scammers in Akihabara and Shinjuku. Again, where tourists frequent, may invite tourists into maid cafes, quote unquote, or themed clubs that come with extortionate hidden charges. This is true. Again, like, don't listen to people on the street. Even in Japan, avoid massage places and dating offers and things like this. It's probably a scam. And a lot of the people might not be Japanese. They might be, you know, living, they might be residents of Japan, but they could be foreign residents living here. Just politely say, ah. I always go, I would walk past them. means I'm good. I'm good. It's a way to say no thank you. But I know that there's adventurous dudes that are going to try this stuff. But I'm just telling you, it doesn't matter how big you are. You got to fight off a bunch of scam artists that come at you and you're in a place that you can't get out of unless you get your credit card out and start paying. So just be aware that these are things that you can do. These scams exist.

00:17:00 John Daub: Let me explain a little bit about JK to you. It refers to illegal or exploitive businesses involving underage girls, often targeting men, sometimes linked, almost always targeting men linked to organized crime and exploitation. The word actually means Joshi Kousei (女子高生，high school girls). That's it. Joshi Kousei, JK, that's what it's short for, is when organized crime makes these young girls do stuff. Sometimes they're I've seen it. And if you're walking down Tobita Shinchi (飛田新地，brothel district) in Osaka, I was told by somebody that a lot of these girls that are in this gray