‘It’s just a bad person’: Social Media Hyperfixates on Racially Profiling a Woman Who Shoved a Child at the Shibuya Crossing
A woman in Japan’s famous Shibuya Crossing ruthlessly shoved a child. The clip went viral in condemnation of the woman. But conversations on social media took an unexpected turn, with accounts theorizing the woman’s race.
Instagram user peipeilin527 shared a video of her daughter crossing the famous landmark in Tokyo. Then, a masked woman came into the frame and shoved the little girl. The mother, thankfully, confirmed the child’s safety—but the video naturally stoked outrage among social media users.
An X user called ‘mrjeffu’ wrote that they took the video from a Japanese account. The X account stated that the Japanese account claims the masked woman “looks” Chinese. With a mask on, how could anyone tell?
The X account that uploaded the video named ‘FreeAll_protest’ thought that the woman was “mainland Chinese” based on their fashion sense. They added that if the woman were Japanese, she would apologize to the little girl.
As mentioned, the aggressor was wearing a mask on the video. Their ethnicity and nationality are unconfirmed, and it’s also possible that the woman in question is also Japanese. As X user ‘VesperAegis’ eloquently puts it, “It’s just a bad person. They exist everywhere, in every culture, in all walks of life. Stop categorizing people.”
The phenomenon of ‘Bumping Man’ in Japan
The claim that all Japanese people will apologize after bumping into someone is false. While it’s generally considered etiquette to apologize for inconveniencing another person in Japan, there is also a phenomenon of intentional and aggressive “bumping” in Japan.
‘Bumping Man’ (ぶつかり男) in Japan involves men who bump and shove people into crosswalks and other public places. They target those whom they deem weaker than them—in the case of the bumping man, women are often the casualty.
Even if the perpetrator in the viral video proves to be non-Japanese, it hardly matters. The crime exists in Japan and should be dealt with because, in the end, a girl was hurt, and her mother regretted taking a video on the busy street. If there’s any consolation in this story, it’s that the mother of the child confirmed that the child is safe and unharmed.
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