Homeless beggars in osaka? First encounter

I find this a rare incident but I was approached by an elderly man today who could not speak much English . He said merry Xmas and he was homeless and hungry in very broken English. I felt sorry for him and only had a 500 yen coin in my pocket atleast if true he could by a hot coffee and food at convenience store. Just wondering if this is something becoming more common?

On another note seen a young punk push his girlfriend to the ground in anger. I did not get involved and told wife to stay away as we don't know the situation.

I have never encountered a beggar in Japan in ten years of intensive travel across the entire country. Of course, Japan has its share of public aggression. I have encountered some shouting-at-each-other situations (usually involving an unhappy customer), but never any public violence. I am not a night person, and don't live in Osaka. But it surely happens.

That is a rare occurrence.
I have lived in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) for totaling nearly 15 years and I have never encountered nor ever heard of anyone encountering a beggar.

As for violence, if you go out at night you will occasionally see that type of situation and of course in-home DV is a real problem.

Well Osaka is full of homeless especially around tennoji.

They usually keep to themselves though.

As for public agression if it's gonna happen you bet Osaka clowns are not above it

Osaka has a large population of homeless people south of Tennoji in a district known as Nishinari. There are homeless people in many cities in Japan, and Osaka is an industrial city in a l-o-n-g period of stagnation since 1990. Few people beg as Japanese people keep a certain pride and most homeless people try to earn by gathering cans and metal, apart from receiving security money from the authorities and aid from charity foundations.

Assaulting people occurs very rare but dirty things can happen at bars place. Violence is not socially tolerated in Japan. Women aren't always victims but that's another issue. The best you could do is try to calm it down and make them talk things over instead of hitting each other, which is hard to do when the assaulting side is a mobster or lost his/her mind by alcohol etc. I would notify the nearby police box saying that it's not a ''dispute'' (which the police can't handle) but an ''attack/assault/violence'' (crime) that is taking place.

Thanks guys, it's like I thought, this was in shinsaibashi suji that it happened. Back home I would have said no but I was shocked and felt so sorry I had to give something, I have spent a lot of time in Ueno in the past years and have spoken to a few homeless people but they never had asked for help.

Do other japanese people stand up to violence against women in the street?

Do other japanese people stand up to violence against women in the street?

I'm Japanese. And a women, if that makes a difference.

First of all, in Japan, I've never had people coming up to me for money, but I've had that experience more than once when traveling overseas such as Asia, Europe and America.

These people can be true or they can be fraud just trying to pick on foreign tourists. You never know. Sometimes I say no, and sometimes I pay them a coin worth enough for their performance.

As for violence, I always try not to ignore them. If you look into the Japanese internet, you tend to feel that the majority tries to stay away from trouble by ignoring them, fearing that it may lead to the so-called "gyaku-gire" (backfire) but I hope to think that that is the minority.

It's easy to avoid backfire. Be gentle, polite, specific and provide an alternative. For example, I try not to shout at people who are causing trouble, because that will only excite them.

Instead, I would observe them for a while and make sure I don't misunderstand anything. Then I go up to them saying, "Excuse me, could you stop this, please? Because so and so. You can do so and so instead."

In the original question's couple's case, I might tell them that I wasn't comfortable about what I saw and encourage them to take a deep breath and get something to eat (because people tend to get restless when they're hungry). Or I might encourage them to discuss it at a police booth (koban), because the police booth is supposed to help neighbors live in peace.

It's not about men abusing women. It's just not every day that you see grown people being pushed to the ground, so even if I was in a hurry, I would probably inform the nearest guard or police officer to keep an eye on them. I mean, wouldn't you feel sick if he stabbed her right after you left??

Hi Uco,
You are right and i wanted to help (well i wanted to beat him down but that would make me no better than him) My Japanese language is very broken and i would not be able to assist in that manner, I doubt i would ever see that again in this country but who knows, I thank you all for your replies and wish you all a merry xmas.

Dan,

I forgot to mention that that kind of communication can be done without the knowledge of the local language.

You can just gesture or you can simply speak in your own native language. Your heart translates best when spoken in your own words, and I'm not kidding.

For example, you can observe the guy while wearing a pitiful smile and he would probably get the message. If that sounds too risky, you can use both palms of your hands and gesture the "Whoa, wait a minute" pose. You can take a deep breath yourself and gesture for them to do the same. It's even easier to go find a koban and do a pantomime of the couple. By the way, I once had a police report filed in a country where they spoke none of the languages I can understand. I did it all by gesture.

More than once, I have heard Japanese people say that it's always the non-natives who come to the rescue. I don't believe that's true. I've seen and had lots of locals come to the rescue, too. But either way, language is not a barrier in these situations.

I dont think public violence is that uncommon in Osaka. I've seen it happen a few times, twice in shinsaibashi and once in fujiidera. Me and my husband (japanese) were having a reunion with his high school friends in fujiidera when we saw a young man arguing with his girlfriend in front of a bar. He then suddenly pushed her so my husband went to him and told him that what he did was not ok. The two situations in shinsaibashi were a lot more serious though. I was in sankaku koen with my friends waiting for the first train when we saw a guy slap his girlfriend repeatedly and then actually fisted his hand and started punching her. Everyone whose been to sankaku kouen knows there's a police box right next to it so my friend ran there to get the police. There were a lot of people at the park but no one else did a thing. Everyone just looked away and pretended not to see. Same thing with the other incident. A girl was getting beaten up pretty bad in front of a club but nobody bothered to help her. Instead, people actually formed a circle around the couple and stood there just watching. My husband's friend happened to walk by and pulled the guy away. Have to say I agree with Uco on Japanese people not wanting to get involved. Then again, my husband and his friends are all Japanese so I guess there's always an exception to the rule.