YoIt starts out as a touching clip. A young woman, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, smiles as she flashes a peace sign for the camera. Seconds later, a woman wearing a surgical mask pushes her to the ground from behind. The aggressor does not miss a beat and leaves the shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother.
This was not an accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of an avalanche of butsukari otoko – “man-hitting” – shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender dynamics and the stress of modern life.
A video of the incident, filmed on February 25 in the middle of the popular “fighting” intersection in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood, has racked up more than 1 million views on Instagram. Most commenters condemned the woman’s actions, while some questioned whether it was wise to take photos in the middle of a crowded intersection.
The beating phenomenon entered the Japanese public consciousness in 2018, when a slightly blurry video emerged of a man deliberately barging into several women at Shinjuku Station, the world’s busiest train station.
Last May, a 59-year-old associate professor was arrested in Fukuoka on suspicion of assaulting several passers-by after hitting them with his bag as he passed by.
The man faces a prison sentence of up to two years or a maximum fine of 300,000 yen ($1,895). Assaults that result in injuries carry more severe penalties.
Other incidents were reported around Tamachi Station in Tokyo, including a woman hit so hard she suffered rib fractures. Commuters must now stay in lanes separated by bollards when approaching and leaving the station.
It’s not just men who hit, although anecdotally they are more likely to be the perpetrators. Social media posts show people of both sexes walking deliberately through crowded public spaces, ready to administer a shoulder barge to unsuspecting victims.
In a widely shared clip, a woman is seen hitting a passer-by with her purse, then stopping to pick something up from the ground before returning to berate her victim.
The relative novelty of the crime means that official statistics are not kept. In many cases, the alleged attackers take advantage of the environment to blend into the crowd. Some victims also do not know that they have been deliberately attacked.
A 2024 survey of 21,000 men and women found that 14% had been victims of butsukari, while 6% said they had witnessed an assault and 5% had experienced both.
Experts attribute the phenomenon in part to changing gender policies.
Beatings are a “reflection of modern society,” Kiryu Masayuki, a sociology professor at Toyo University who specializes in criminal psychology, told toyokeizai.net last year. “Outdated ideas, such as the belief that men are superior to women… are still deeply rooted. But in today’s world, where the job market is tough and people are unsure about the future, traditional ideas of masculinity have been lost.”
Running into women was a low-risk way to vent his frustrations, he said. “They trust that the police won’t catch them.”
Japan’s tourism boom has added another layer to the problem, as hordes of visitors hoping to capture an Instagram-perfect moment descend on busy spots in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka to pause and film.
After the crossing incident involving the girl, who is from Taiwan, the Chinese embassy in Tokyo warned its citizens to keep a safe distance from others in crowded places and to avoid using their smartphones while walking.
However, there was nothing to suggest that the attacker knew the girl’s nationality. She can be seen elbowing a man and brushing against another boy just before pushing the girl to the ground.
The boy’s mother said he had inadvertently filmed a “scary scene.” “It also made me realize that these kinds of situations happen quite frequently in Japan,” he told The Guardian. She said she had been criticized and insulted online for taking photographs of her daughter, who was unharmed, at a pedestrian crossing.
“I admit I may have been careless with the flow of people. But it wasn’t as if I was ignoring traffic rules,” she said, adding that she had been following advice in Chinese provided on Go Tokyo, a website run by the Tokyo Convention and Visitors Bureau, which tells visitors they “can even stop at the intersection and take a photo.”
