“Heartless” Tokyo Masses Block Ambulance

A video of Tokyo pedestrians ignoring an ambulance even as it begs them to make way and stop using a scramble crossing for long enough to let it pass has lately been causing much outrage online, with many leaping to condemn the heartless folk of the capital.

The video:

Online there is outrage and much condemnation of Tokyo residents – notwithstanding the fact that many of the commenters are likely to be from Tokyo – as well as the sort of defensiveness which might be expected of a people who wait at crossing lights for 5 minutes in front of an empty road:

“This is horrible!”

“What is wrong with these people?”

“I am shocked at how ill-behaved these people are.”

“I had no idea Tokyo was this bad a place.”

“This is worse than I imagined. Mass psychology is scary stuff!”

“I can’t believe this is Japan.”

“These are not Japanese, they are Tokyoites.”

“What scum!”

“And I thought Chiba was bad – this is atrocious.”

“Pedestrians are nasty. They used to scatter when the ambulances shouted at them…”

“Well, if you just stopped, the people behind you would just go nuts.”

“It looks like the Shibuya scramble crossing. At a place like that, stopping would be the harder option.”

“This couldn’t really be helped, due to the design of the crossing. It wouldn’t happen on other types of crossing.”

“Stop making excuses about being pushed along or there being too many people to stop. Don’t you have any common sense? Didn’t your parents and teachers teach you anything?”

“Stopping a big crossing like that might actually be the more dangerous option.”

“I can’t believe these people are even human. They have lost their souls!”

“Tokyo inhabitants are rotten to the core. I’m ashamed to be from the same country as them. Don’t they know about ambulances? Did they study so hard they forgot to learn any morals?”

“I can imagine there being one or two idiots, but what the hell is with this?”

“I cannot believe it, but there it is in the video. And to think the world praised Japan for its morals in response to the quake.”

“What would you expect from Shibuya!”

“Getting home is so much more important than some stranger’s life.”

“Tokyo people think they’re so cool, so well mannered, but on the inside they are scum!”

“It makes me sick to think these people are the same species as me!”

“This is the bad side of the Japanese character. Behave according to group psychology, everything is someone else’s problem. Someone collapses on the train, or gets sexually harassed – someone else will deal with it.”

“Hopefully an earthquake under Tokyo will wipe out half of Shibuya!”

“Ishihara was saying the earthquake was divine punishment for the greedy and corrupt Japanese. Seeing this, Tokyo deserves it!”

“What do you expect, Tokyo attracts all the country bumpkins!”

“All the people bashing Tokyo and Shibuya residents – less than a quarter of the population there actually comes from Tokyo.”

“Japan has no morals. I can’t believe this would happen in Europe or America.”

“Imagine what you’d feel if a member of your family was a patient on that ambulance. This is no different to those Chinese people pretending not to see someone in need.”

“It’s because Tokyo has lots of foreigners. They probably aren’t Japanese.”