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The story
On the September 13 broadcast of TV Asahi’s “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle,” Takeshi shared his personal views on customer harassment (“kasu-hara”) — abusive behavior by passengers toward taxi drivers. His remark, “If everyone just calmed down a bit, it feels like both sides were kind of at fault,” sparked a 5ch thread where users traded stories of witnessing trouble with drunk passengers, complaints about curt, unfriendly drivers, and even claims that Takeshi himself once mocked taxi drivers in his own act — with opinions coming in from both the passenger and driver side.
Beat Takeshi shares his views on customer harassment toward taxi drivers: “If everyone just calmed down a bit, it feels like both sides were kind of at fault…”
Entertainer Beat Takeshi appeared on the September 13 broadcast of TV Asahi’s “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle” (Sundays at noon), where he offered his personal take on the customer harassment (“kasu-hara” — egregious misconduct such as violence, verbal abuse, and unreasonable demands directed at employees by customers or business partners) that runs rampant in society today.
That day’s episode covered a range of issues facing Japanese society.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
If you wait 2 hours only to get told the cheapest possible destination, yeah, you'd want to tell them to get lost.
When I'm coming home from a trip I deliberately get off one stop early so I can grab a taxi there instead.
Seems like more and more Japanese people can't even manage that basic courtesy anymore 🤭
Sexual assaults by shady drivers ("kumosuke") still happen today.
I remember seeing stats on it and being shocked at how often it occurs.
Back in the day there were even more creepy drivers like that.
Not that different even now — taxis especially have a huge hit-or-miss range.
who get into this many spats with drivers
A regular office worker isn't going to feel like starting a fight in a taxi.
That's just because the only place you hear about taxis is TV lol
This reply instantly gives away that neither you nor anyone around you actually uses taxis lol
the "trash-talking taxi drivers" bit.
the kind who are so curt you wonder who they think they are.
There's a huge difference between customers in the countryside and in Tokyo.
In the big city it's a total one-time-only encounter.
As long as you get to your destination without an accident, isn't that enough lol
What exactly are you expecting from a taxi?
I mean, the least they could do is respond when you tell them your destination.
That's right.
And he was hospitalized for months after a serious accident.
That neck-tilting thing he does is a lingering after-effect from it.
He'd run away from home at the time, so he never even told his family.
People use taxis precisely because they're drunk, so that's not really feasible.
Though I do agree about the completely wasted ones.
There's no such thing as easy money lol
If you don't like it, go set up a long-distance-only taxi pool lol
and start mistaking them for just a part of the "taxi" system.
Same goes for people who blow up at train station staff or convenience store clerks.
I get that, honestly.
I have that tendency myself too.
I don't want convenience store clerks or taxi drivers striking up weird conversations with me.
I just want the bare minimum necessary exchange.
Refusal only counts as an offense in a field like healthcare.
classic go-to talk show material for celebrities.
Also trashing convenience store clerks.
I think there's no way I could ever do that job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ89xtUxlGg
That's the worst.
If you can't handle your liquor, just drink at home.
And if it's a short ride, do you say "Sorry, it's just a short trip"?
When I was a new hire, the very first thing my boss chewed me out for was how I got into a taxi lol
The people here don't ride taxis.
The people posting in this thread are probably mostly bored taxi drivers with time on their hands lol
When I come up to Tokyo for Comiket,
I do take a taxi when leaving Tokyo Big Sight.
Partly exhaustion, partly that Comiket messes with your sense of money lol
and had an announcer read that script out loud.
Wait, isn't the base fare higher now?
So I guess I should just say "drive me around for 30 minutes or whatever"?
It's actually gone down compared to the past.
For a short trip it's like 500 yen.
No wonder his comments about taxi drivers come off sympathetic.
There was that movie, something like "Takeshis'," where Takeshi played dual roles,
and there was a scene where he was a bit kind to a taxi driver.
Correction: Takeshi was driving a taxi on the side while also working as a comedian during his unsuccessful 20s, right?
The taxi driver profession itself might disappear entirely —
though self-driving cars themselves might also end up taking longer to arrive
than people expect.
That stopped dead at some point though.
Actually that's made a comeback lately, in a big way — part of it's simply the pay issue,
but it's also that they've stopped treating public transit as a service industry, more of a "you're gonna ride anyway, aren't you?"
attitude that's become the norm.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
“Customer harassment” (kasu-hara) has become a widely used term for a labor issue in recent years, with authorities getting involved too — Tokyo enacted Japan’s first-ever ordinance against customer harassment in April 2025. In the thread, some voiced concern over customer-side misconduct like trouble with drunk passengers and verbal abuse or threats, while others held firm complaints about unfriendly drivers who won’t even respond when told a destination — suggesting this isn’t simply a case of blaming one side alone. Claims that Takeshi mocked taxi drivers in the past, along with anecdotes about his own younger years, were also posted, but it’s worth noting these are all hearsay separate from the actual broadcast content, and their accuracy hasn’t been confirmed.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Beat Takeshi shares his views on customer harassment toward taxi drivers: “If everyone just calmed down a bit, it feels like both sides were kind of at fault…”.”
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