Elderly Man Berates Crying Baby on Train, Beats Hasty Retreat After Three Women Give Him an Earful

From our other sites

The story

A firsthand account went viral on 5ch’s News Speed+ board: a man believed to be in his 70s, angered by a baby crying on a commuter train, reportedly kept hurling abuse at the apologizing mother, saying things like “sorry doesn’t cut it.” A trio of women who happened to be nearby is said to have given him a sharp rebuke, after which the man had nothing left to say and left the scene. While the thread saw plenty of sympathy for the mother and criticism of the elderly, a good number of commenters also doubted whether the story was even true, calling it “usomatsu” (a term for a suspiciously fake-sounding sob story) or wondering if it was AI-written — producing a mix of emotional sympathy and cool-headed skepticism.

The man who flew into a rage appeared to be around 70 years old. He apparently found the baby’s crying so intolerable that he kept hurling a stream of abuse at the apologizing mother.

“The mother was practically in tears apologizing, saying ‘I’m sorry,’ but the man kept piling on lines like ‘sorry doesn’t solve anything,’ ‘you’re an inconsiderate mother,’ and ‘get off right now’ — the kind of thing that made even bystanders like me uncomfortable to hear. The whole car went dead silent, with nothing but the baby’s crying and the man’s shouting echoing through it.”

◆ The Mysterious Trio Turned Out to Be Allies

Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Read the original article here

What people said

3AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:09
The world is overflowing with toxic old farts ("rougai" — a slang term for elderly people who cause trouble for those around them).
Amen.
6AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:10
You're supposed to be quiet on the train, right?
Guess we should all just enjoy the sound of the rails switching and clacking over the points instead.
7AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:10
Women are so badass
This story feels amazing, love it!!!
9AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:11
But it's so unfair — women go for strong men while the nice guys get left in the dust.
51AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:18
Re: #9
Being spineless and being kind aren't the same thing.
Truly kind men are plenty popular.
81AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:23
Re: #9
You keep saying that, old man, but the punchline is always the same: they end up accused of sexual violence and getting "Nakai-Matsumoto'd" (a reference to the sexual misconduct scandals involving celebrities Nakai Masahiro and Matsumoto Hitoshi).
181AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:41
Re: #9
What you guys call "kind" is just the bare minimum — not being violent is basic human decency. That's not kindness, that's just the floor.
11AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:11
Did he seriously hurl abuse at a baby, though?
12AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:12
Anna Tsuchiya (an actress famous for playing tough "yankee"-type roles) taking reputational damage from being lumped in with delinquents.
13AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:12
This reeks of "usomatsu" (a made-up sob story).
The Violet Flower Clock.
I thought stories made up out of thin air were supposed to be more fun than this.
14AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:12
[Tokyo]

https://nikkan-spa.jp/2182471

Shoko Makise (pseudonym, 29), who works at an IT company in Tokyo, reportedly ended up riding in the same train car as the man who flew into a rage at a mother with a child, while she was in on her day off.
15AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:12
What is it with guys in their 70s wearing baseball caps always turning out to be garbage, every single time?
16AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:12
A crying baby?

That's soothing to me lol

Whenever I look at a crying baby

it usually stops crying lol

I can calm them down with just my eyes
19AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:13
I can put up with a baby crying, but a kid's shrieking makes me want to hit something.
23AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:13
That same tired, AI-generated "toxic old person" story I'm sick of seeing recommended on X.
Guess it's made its way into SPA articles now too.
24AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:13
Piling on abuse after you've already gotten someone to apologize is just kicking a corpse.
Back in the old arcade days someone would've thrown an ashtray at him.
Meet the monster geezer who hit 70 without ever learning a thing from life.
25AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:14
Re: #1
Quit dragging Anna Tsuchiya into this — that's collateral reputational damage.
26AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:14
Well, honestly, a guy loudly complaining is more obnoxious than the crying itself. Can't argue with that.
27AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:14
Another one of these "old man = villain, woman = hero" fanfics, huh?
30AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:15
A made-up story, huh… can you actually make a living off writing fiction like this?
79AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:23
Why not just have an AI write it?
88AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:25
Re: #79
It's obviously already AI.
82AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:23
Their true identity is…

Charlie's Angels?
150AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:35
Re: #82
More like the Kisugi sisters.
115AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:29
They churned out another one of these same old made-up stories, huh.
Is this AI-generated too?
118AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:30
Re: #115
Of course it's just outsourced entirely to AI.
129AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:32
There were actually more kids around in the Showa era, and they were louder too — people these days have just lost all their patience.
134AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:33
Re: #129
That's because we're a nation of lowlifes who get their kicks reading these feel-good made-up stories.
144AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:34
Re: #129
Yeah, hearing the neighbors' marital spats through the walls used to be a daily occurrence.
133AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:33
Looks like they took inspiration from "The Exit 8" (a Japanese horror game/film).
Though that was a boring movie.
159AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:36
Re: #133
They say it's basically a birthrate-decline countermeasure movie —
if you don't call out the power-harassing old man on the train,
you can't get out of the station.
154AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:36
"Sukatto Japan" (a Japanese TV show built around feel-good comeuppance stories)
165AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:38
Re: #154
This isn't satisfying at all.
Babies cry for a reason,
and saying "don't just ignore that" is fair enough —
but yelling about it is going too far.
162AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:37
"Their true identity is…" lol, that got me.
Someone's imagination is running way too wild.
163AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:37
Re: #162
Could they at least make the story sound a bit more natural lol
172AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:39
I think this part is actually true.
The real reason playground equipment gets removed from parks isn't because it's dangerous,
and the real reason events get cancelled
is complaints from toxic old people.
188AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:41
Re: #172
I figured it was because shady-looking young people gather around the swings at night and cause trouble.
200AnonymousSep 3, 2026 16:43
Re: #172
That's not "toxic old people," that's "monster parent" (a term for overbearing, entitled parents) complaints…

Background and Talking Points on This Story

This kind of “trouble on the train” personal account is a staple genre frequently published by web outlets like Nikkan SPA! — often called “sukatto” (feel-good comeuppance) stories — and is typically narrated through pseudonymous, unverifiable characters. In this thread too, commenters focused less on debating the story itself and more on questioning the article’s credibility. “Usomatsu” is slang that originated on 2channel/5ch, traditionally used when a poster’s personal anecdote smells fabricated, though in recent years it’s increasingly used to suspect an article was auto-generated by AI. The complaint about the “old man = villain, woman = hero” framing is also a stock criticism routinely leveled at this genre of anecdote article, not something unique to this particular story. The tendency for criticism to pile onto the elderly likewise owes a lot to how casually the term “rougai” (a pejorative for elderly people regarded as a nuisance or burden to society) gets thrown around on 5ch, and it’s worth noting that this isn’t necessarily grounded in actual data about elderly people as a whole.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “👴 ‘Shut it up!’ — Elderly Man Hurls Abuse at a Crying Baby on a Train, Then Turns Tail and Flees After Three Women Give Him a Piece of Their Mind.”

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *