A Japanese cop actually helps some FG!?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I figured since I posted the story about the cops stopping me and asking for ID, I'd tell a story about a cop who was actually pretty cool and helpful.


I was in Roppongi a few months ago with a friend and we picked up a couple of girls and decided to take them back to the 'hood. Of course hailing a cab in Roppongi in the wee hours is never easy. Especially not for four gaijin.

Well, open cabs kept passing us and passing us. We were getting fucking pissed and had some drivers even blatantly lie to us claiming to be off duty even though the sign said open and they quickly picked up Japanese customers a few meters down the street. So one of the girls tried to call a cab company but they kept hanging up on her when they heard the accented Japanese.

Anyway, this went on for 45 minutes till a cop came by and asked if an illegally parked car was mine. I told him no, we're trying to get a cab but they won't take up because we're gaijin. He tried to assure me that it was just because they were busy. At just that moment an open cab came by and he told me to hail it. Sure enough the driver went right by me. Luckily he had to stop for a red light.

The officer went up to the cab, knocked on the door and when the driver opened he asked whether the driver would take us or not. The driver actually said, "No. They don't speak Japanese." The cop looked pretty shocked and kind of snapped at the guy and said, "Yes they do! Take them!" The driver had no choice and looked none too happy about it.

I hope that incident made at least on cop a little more aware of the shit that FGs have to deal with sometimes.

[American Oyaji]

LOL. That's pretty cool!

[AssKissinger]

LOL. That's pretty cool!

I wouldn't be surprised if the cop wouldn't have helped if they were black.

[amdg]

I've never taken a cab in Tokyo, as far as I can recall, but I take them all the time in Osaka (and Kobe). Out of all those 100's of times, I've never once had a problem with them not stopping for me. Things must be a bit different in Tokyo.

[Mulboyne]

Of course hailing a cab in Roppongi in the wee hours is never easy. Especially not for four gaijin.

That's good to hear about the policeman. I am a bit surprised you found it difficult to get a cab around Roppongi, though.

[drpepper]

This used to happen alot in Osaka as well but the last few years has seen an overabundance of cabs and fewer people taking them, in Osaka money is even more important than prejudice and it is rare now that they will avoid you. This mostly happens in the late night hours of drinking districts though and there is no way than can avoid you if there is a taxi stand around.

[American Oyaji]

I've never had a cab problem in Japan.

I do in the states. There arent enough of them.

[Iraira]

Had a very stand-offish cab driver in Hiroshima once. Guess he pegged me for an American A-bomb dropper. Spoke some Japanese to him, and he seemed to warm up a bit, as if by my learning to speak Japanese, I had atoned for the sins of my ancestors. If only this would work in the Middle East, oil prices would be lower.

[kamome]

SJ, if the chick's Japanese was accented, then where were they from? (Obviously, I care more about this angle than the point of your story).

[Samurai_Jerk]

SJ, if the chick's Japanese was accented, then where were they from? (Obviously, I care more about this angle than the point of your story).

The one calling was Brazilian the other one was Peruvian. Neither was worth writing home about. The funny thing about that was that one of the girls we were with was shocked that a couple of white boys couldn't hail a cab. She said latins and blacks have to put up with that shit all the time but she had no idea that there was discrimination against whites.

I've had trouble getting cabs at night in Roppongi a few times recently and a lot of my friends say the same. I wonder if there was some big incident in the past 6 months that has made cabbies a little gun shy.

Back to the race thing, AK, I wouldn't be surprised either. After that I actually said to my friend, "Now we know what it's like to be black in NY." I grew up in NYC and in high school, if I was out partying with my black or Puerto Rican friends and we decided to take a cab home at night we had to trick the drivers. Basically they would all stand way back and pretend that they weren't with me and when the cab stopped I'd get in slowly and then they'd jump in too. If it ever looked like I was with them the taxis would never stop.

[jim katta]

"Now we know what it's like to be black in NY."

INDEED.

Just in case anyone had any doubts... It's 2006, I'm make six figures (usd), I'm black, don't dress hip-hop, but just last week I stood on a corner in midtown manhattan and watched cabs pass me by for about 20 minutes. All the cabs had their "on duty" lights on. one even slowed up to pick me up (I have light skin), but upon realizing I was definitely black took off.

The constant humiliation of this kind of thing when you are a law abiding, money making person just trying to get home makes it very hard to like it in the U.S. And this is my own country, I'm not from an immigrant family. When I go abroad (europe, asia) I've never had this problem with cabs. This all leads to me usually feeling more comfortable in a foreign country than the one I was raised in -- freaky, right?

In the U.S., if I buy an expensive car I get the constant "driving while black" hassles and bullsh-t tickets (I was once ticketed and surrounded by FIVE cop cars for not signaling as I slowly PULLED OUT OF A PARKING SPOT AT 4 A.M. on a deserted, traffic-less manhattan street), and if I try to catch cabs I have to almost throw myself in front of cars to get them to stop.

I hate whiny woe is me sh-t like the next guy, I respect bootstappers. But I can't help but relay my reality. Yes, I'm glad I get paid well, Yes, I can buy whatever I want (as long as it's not property in certain neighborhoods), but it's the little daily things like this cab stuff that constantly has me planning my permanent move outside of the U.S. I can't imagine being a father with his son/daughter and not being able to get a cab and having to explain this to my child and explain that they will have to live with the same reality. Better to just move away to places where this doesn't happen Every Day.

[Numerous court cases, and TLC complaints by hundreds of people have not stopped this practice. It is beyond the law, it's a cultural phenomenon. Ironically, most of the perpatrators are african/middle-eastern people who probably can't get a cab either when hailing one. Doh!!!!!!!]

[gomichild]

Jim - that totally sucks dude.

I rarely go to Roppongi but have always had trouble trying to catch cabs there. In fact it was one late night there and me desperate for any cab to stop which led me to ending up with the masturbating hermaphrodite taxi driver......

[GomiGirl]

It happens to me a few times a week - taxi drivers either slow down then take off when they see I am a foreigner (that is what I assume is their reason as I have stopped carrying around large weapons of taxi destruction - well the obvious ones anyway).

Or they just refuse to open the doors.. I was really cranky one day when this happened and the cab I got saw that the first driver wouldn't pick me up and I had a conversation with him about it. I suggested that the colour of my money was the same as everybody elses and he suggested that perhaps he was worried about my not speaking Japanese - which he said was unreasonable given that we were having this conversation in Japanese. He basically said that some people were narrow minded and for not to let this worry me...

It only really bothers me when a) I have shoes that are hurting my feet, b) I am in a hurry or c) it is raining.. normally I have been drinking so I just tend to use the opportunity to talk to the next taxi driver and mock the narrow minded ones together.. in Japanese.

Taxi drivers hardly earn anything in Japan so you would think they would try to take any fare they could.. ah well, their loss.

[American Oyaji]

Question: Do Japanese taxi drivers get paid a flat raid or per fair?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Question: Do Japanese taxi drivers get paid a flat raid or per fair?

I don't know if this is true or not, but a Japanese person just told me last week that cab drivers who are employees of a company and don't own their taxis get a flat fee. However, they are required to make a quota. Once they hit their quota for the day a lot of them stop picking up passengers which is why you see a lot of cabs idling with napping drivers. The company aparently pays for gas too.

[Behan]

That Michael Moore show (TV Nation?) made a real point about taxis. The taxis would pick up a white scary-looking convicted felon but not a black man who, I think, had won an (acting?) award. Eventually they put up a big sign with lights saying something like 'I need a taxi.' but the man still got passed by. Did anyone see that? I am behind the times and might have the details wrong but that episode was really interesting.

[Mulboyne]

I rarely go to Roppongi but have always had trouble trying to catch cabs there.

I must be missing something because I've never found Roppongi particularly bad for that in recent years. The vomit stains on my shirt must make me look distinguished. The worst stretch is from the station down to Iikura but that's partly because there are always a lot of people trying to hail them so its easy for a cab to go for a local without obviously ignoring the foreigner. It gets better if you go the crossing at Iikura where you can see them coming from a couple of directions and there are fewer people.

However, I do find more drivers seem to ignore me if it's late at night and I'm with a Japanese girl. They obviously jump to a conclusion (the same one that some of you are jumping to right now) and can't bear the thought of it. I don't get that problem if I'm own my own, with another foreigner or a Japanese bloke.

[Greji]

However, I do find more drivers seem to ignore me if it's late at night and I'm with a Japanese girl. They obviously jump to a conclusion (the same one that some of you are jumping to right now) and can't bear the thought of it.

I don't run in to that anymore, as I have usually call Nihonkotsu which is who my company and I register with (just filled out a form on my own from one of the taxi's)uses and they have my Keitai on file, I call order up a ride and they call me back with the taxi number and a guestimate of how long it will take to arrive.

When it is a separate situation, I send the girl out to flag the cab. I only use that ploy when I am sober, because when I am sober, I am only seen with choice fluff on me sleeve.

However, when I'm pissed I flag the cab myself. This is an automatic reflex on my part based on the experience of having awaken in the morning with some things that a dump truck driver wouldn't even stop for so I know that it's the only way I'll get a ride.