The driver was arrested for attempted murder. Japan's comment section put the people he nearly hit on trial.
Toritetsu — Japan's train photographers — hold a special place in this country's news, and a lower one in its comment sections. What happened under an attempted-murder story, explained from the beginning.
How the votes fell
Ranked by upvotes. Left of the slash is agree, right is disagree. This is where the resentment actually sits.
- 1 4434 ∕ 86 The video shows the driver clearly went too far — reversing at a speed that could have killed several people. But the photographers had filled half the roadway with tripods, grinning, appallingly rude. They created this situation; crack down on them too, not just the driver.
- 2 3321 ∕ 89 Even without this driver, look at the video — stepladders everywhere, blocking traffic to hold camera spots, and when someone objects, a crowd hurling abuse. They sow the seeds of their own trouble. Left unchecked, each success teaches them the next outrage.
- 3 2705 ∕ 92 Reversing a car at people is indefensible — the driver is in the wrong. But it looks like it started when he warned the photographers spilling into the road, and the crowd jeered and swore at him. Taunt people in a mob and some of it comes back as retaliation; they should learn that.
- 4 2067 ∕ 41 They occupied a full lane at the crossing with ladders and tripods, about twenty of them, jeering with unearned confidence. They probably uploaded the video thinking it proves their innocence — I watched it and feel no sympathy at all. But running someone over is a crime, so call the police instead.
- 5 847 ∕ 21 With cases like this, the police rarely move until it becomes a crime, however often you consult them beforehand. Same with noise disputes. The very idea of preventing an incident before it happens has gone missing from Japanese officialdom.
I read all 1,020 parent comments. Total votes: 23,963 'I relate' against 2,687 'hmm' — 90 percent agreement. Counted by target, comments about the photographers' manners number 334 and carry 13,752 supporting votes — 57 percent of all the agreement on the page. Comments openly sympathizing with the driver number 38, carrying just 122 votes; 'I support his acquittal' got 5 votes and no objections — the sum total of literal hero worship. The voices that tried to judge the driver sank instead: 'prison without suspension' (12 to 31), 'attempted murder fits' (50 to 113), 'a 55-year-old should have learned patience' (21 to 23), and 'what frightens me is how many people here write that hitting them would be fine' (34 to 272). Of 156 comments that finished with more objections than support, most were on the driver-judging side. The man facing charges left the conversation; the people he nearly hit stood trial.
On the evening of August 14, at a railway crossing in Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, a 55-year-old man allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old who was photographing trains — then put his car in reverse and drove at him. The young man was not hurt. The older man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder; he partially denies it, telling police he reversed "just to give them a scare."
First, a word you need. Toritetsu — literally "shoot-the-rail" — are Japan's train photographers. This is a country that loves its railways, and when a rare train runs, dozens of cameras line the tracks. Unfortunately, the hobby is also a fixture of Japanese news: trespassing on tracks and farmland, blocking roads to hold camera positions, hurling abuse at station staff who intervene. "Toritetsu trouble" is practically a news genre of its own. At this crossing, according to a local's comment, a crowd had gathered to shoot a special holiday-season train.
One more thing you need to know before reading this thread. Video of the confrontation circulated online — and judging from the comments, it was the photographers' side that uploaded it, apparently to expose the driver's violence. What the video actually accomplished, you are about to see.
I read the thread on the third morning after publication: 1,020 parent comments, 1,442 including replies. My usual method — each comment's "I relate" button counts as agreement, its "hmm..." button as disagreement. The totals: 23,963 in agreement, 2,687 in disagreement. 90 percent agreement.
But today's thread cannot be read from the ratio alone. The question is where all that agreement went.
What the comments say, in order of support
The top comment opens by scolding the driver. Read it to the end.
The video shows he clearly went too far — reversing at a dangerous speed; several people could have been killed. BUT the photographer side had a small crowd filling half the roadway, tripods up, smirking — obstructive and appallingly rude. There is no question they created this situation. Crack down on the photographers too, not just the driver.
動画を見ると確かにやり過ぎで危険なスピードでバックし多数の死傷者がでてもおかしくなかった。
しかし撮り鉄側もかなりの人数が車道の半分を埋めつくし三脚を建てヘラヘラしてかなり邪魔でマナーが悪すぎて不快でしたね。
このようなきっかけを作ったのは間違いなく撮り鉄側で取り締まるのはドライバーだけではなく撮り鉄も取り締まるべきです。4,434 in agreement, 86 against. Look at the architecture of that comment. One clause convicts the driver — "several people could have been killed" — and then comes the pivot: but. Everything after the "but" is a trial of the photographers. That structure — one sentence for the driver, the whole paragraph for the other side — owns the top of this thread. Comments about the photographers' manners number 334, carrying 13,752 supporting votes: 57 percent of all the agreement on this page flowed not to judging the man facing charges, but to judging the people he nearly hit.
Third place is the same structure, taken one step further.
I watched the video — reversing a car at people is indefensible, the driver is in the wrong. That said, it looks like it began when he warned the photographers spilling into the road, and they jeered and swore at him as a crowd. Can they really not imagine what taunting people in a mob leads to? They should learn that some of it comes back as retaliation.
動画を見たが車バックさせてまでやることではなく運転手が悪い。ただし
撮り鉄達が踏切付近で道路にはみ出しているのを運転手が注意したのを撮り鉄たちが煽って暴言を吐いたのが発端のように見えた。
あと、彼らは他人を大勢で煽ったりしたらどうなるか想像ができないのか、中にはその行為は報復として返ってくることを知った方がいい。"They should learn that some of it comes back as retaliation" — addressed to the people a car was just reversed at, and carrying 2,705 votes.
Fourth place (2,067 to 41) records the video's boomerang: "They probably uploaded the video thinking it proves their innocence — I watched it and feel no sympathy at all." The footage posted as an accusation became, in the comment section, the verdict against the accusers.
So how much open support did the driver get? Thirty-eight comments express clear sympathy, carrying 122 votes in total — half of one percent of the page's agreement. The largest of them, at 51 votes, reasons like this: he probably never meant to kill anyone, but use a car to scare people and attempted murder is what the charge becomes; still, "my sympathies lean toward the suspect — the state, the municipalities, every agency, the railway companies: nobody takes real measures against the toritetsu, so ordinary citizens end up having to protest directly." That is the same logic that filled yesterday's drift-arrest thread, where "the police only enforce before the Games" collected hundreds of votes. Indeed, this thread's fifth place (847 to 21) is: "the police won't move until it becomes a crime, however often you warn them." Distrust of the rule-keepers is the doorway through which sympathy for vigilante anger enters.
Was there literal hero worship? In a thread of over a thousand comments, this is all of it: one comment declaring "I support this man's acquittal" — watch the video, the photographers' obstruction and entitlement made his actions all but inevitable, surely there's a case for leniency — which earned exactly 5 votes, with none against. Five. The word "acquittal" appears on this page at that price and no higher.
Now the most important numbers on the page: what happened to the voices that tried to judge the driver. "Deliberate attempt to hit people — prison, no suspended sentence" went 12 in favor, 31 against. "The reverse was fast enough that attempted murder fits" went 50 to 113. "A man of 55 should have learned patience by now" went 21 to 23. A comment quoting the suspect's "just wanted to scare them" and calling it juvenile went 6 to 22. All of them sank. And the deepest rejection of all:
What is truly frightening is how many people writing 'hitting them would have been fine' also drive cars every day. There is a mass of latent killers here. Licence holders should face periodic psychological screening, and anyone who thinks running a person over can ever be 'understandable' should lose theirs.
真に恐ろしいのは、ここで轢いても良いと書いている一方で普段車に乗ってる人々が多く存在するということ
潜在的殺人犯が大量にいるし、免許保持者には定期的に心理テストをして人を轢いても仕方ないと少しでも思ってるような人間からは免許を取り上げてほしい34 in favor, 272 against. The comment that called the thread itself frightening received the thread's hardest rejection.
What I make of it
First, there was no hero worship in words. "Acquittal" earned 5 votes; all 38 openly sympathetic comments together earned 122 — half a percent of the page. A Japanese comment section will not write "well done" under an attempted-murder arrest.
Second, what happened instead was a swap of seats. Fifty-seven percent of the agreement flowed to trying the photographers; the top four comments all run on the same hinge — "the driver went too far, but—". And every voice that tried to keep the driver in the dock — demanding prison, affirming the charge, asking for adult patience — collected objections and sank. The room does not praise the accused. It simply changes who sits in the defendant's chair. The 19-year-old who was nearly run over stands trial; those who try to run the actual trial get booed. If it feels like wrongdoers are being celebrated here, this is the machinery behind the feeling — measurable, vote by vote.
Third, the doorway to sympathy is not hatred; it is distrust of institutions. "Nobody takes real measures, so citizens protest directly" (51 votes). "Police won't move until it becomes a crime" (847). The same reasoning powered yesterday's drift thread — enforcement that only wakes for special occasions. When the rule-keepers look asleep, this country's comment sections go slightly easy on whoever wakes them.
Fourth, for the foreign reader. The heaviest charge in this thread was not attempted murder. It was meiwaku — being a nuisance: blocking a road, jeering in a crowd, ignoring warnings, making daily life harder for strangers. It is the one offense Japan's comment sections never forgive. The nuisance streamer was judged 38 to 1; today, the nearly-run-over stood trial for their tripods. One law governs both: be nobody's nuisance — because the moment you are, the votes begin subtracting your right to be protected.
I will keep counting, and I will keep watching.
Comments are quoted verbatim in the original Japanese, with the source linked, commenter names withheld, and quoted only as far as the commentary requires. Translations are mine. Source articles may expire (retrieval dates noted). The substance of this piece is the author's commentary.