Jilted man arrested after refusing to pay for 500-km taxi ride

What taxi driver would take a passenger for that kind of distance without the passenger showing him that he can pay the fare. Does the fare have to pay round trip too?

sound judgement on the part of taxi driver? passenger is behind bars, and now taxi company should take some action against driver too !

driver is a moron.maybe he wanted to be in the news.

It was just greed.

punk shud be grateful Y367,000 is way cheaper than getting shacked up or married, he got off on the cheap imo LOL!!!

“He said he took the free ride because he was dumped by his girlfriend but it just seems like an excuse to defend himself,”

Irregardless of whether or not it was actually for the reason he stated, he has to pay the fair. What's more, don't these drivers actually check the colour of one's money before agreeing to such a thing? (which is to say, shouldn't the driver have perhaps asked a question or two)

Moron seems a bit harsh, unless he is one of those drivers flaunting every traffic rule in the book. Gullible, yes. He even paid the restaurant bill for this guy, twice.

Stories like this pop up every now and then. Four word of advice for cabbies when someone want to go on a cab excursion like this "SHOW ME THE MONEY". Then drive.

I suppose the driver wants fare for the return trip as well! How does he suppose he'll get back to HIS house without losing money on the return trip. The cab criver is filth, offal, foul brown matter!!! He took advantage of a ill person. HE should have driven him to a train station. ARREST THE HACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8 hours and 367,000 yen...and the taxi driver didn't put a stop half way through...? he is insane..

You think maybe you could just kind of tell by looking at an umployed guy that he isn't carrying that kind of cash? I wonder at what point during the ride did the taxi driver thought "Hmm, I'll bet this guy doesn't have the cash...oh well shoganai..."

That cabby would have ditched the cab and claim it was stolen while taking the shinkansen back to his favorite pachinko joint with the sick guys loot.

I think this cabbie is going to be scrubbing toilets in an office building soon. He proved to the cab company the hampster in his head fell off the wheel and can't get up.

Okay, let's kick the scenarios around a bit. I'm guessing "kojin" taxi. So he takes the fare and when he gets to god-knows-where and the ride can't pay the cabbie goes right to the cops. So he's gonna get his money....367,000-yen ain't bad for 8 hours work.

It was just greed.

Huh? What does that has to do with it?

Lot's of silly comments here. 367,000 yen for a cab ride is rare, but not completely unreasonable. Japan has many very wealthy families and individuals and if this passenger presented himself as such, it's quite reasonable that a cab driver would believe him, and understand his sudden interest in returning home alone, on a Sunday evening (perhaps after the Shinkansen stopped running) despite the high fare. The cab driver and passenger entered into an oral contract. It's difficult to understand those who are calling the cab driver "filth" or "moron" and calling for him to be jailed. On what charge?

It is even more reasonable to assume that its someone who can't afford the ride, especially in today's economic climate. In other words, say up front, "Show me the money first Laddy."

They reported on the telly that the passenger stated up front that he had no money (he'd lost his wallet, or been pick-pocketed, or something) but his bankbook was at his friend's place and he would be able to get money out of the bank to pay. When they got to the friend's place, he couldn't find the bankbook. Then he asked his friend to borrow money for him, but his friend was already up to the hilt with the loan sharks. Then he called his father for help, father said he was on his way but never turned up; supposedly he'd been involved in a traffic accident on the way and couldn't make it. That was when the taxi driver called the police.

Thanks for up-date Cleo. Does it say if the cabbie was "kojin" or worked for a company?

Oh c'mon...what man hasn't had his wallet emptied of that good green aphrodisiac at the end of the night?

The passenger sounds a little whacko. Has anyone checked out his girlfriend to see if she's still breathing? I mean, the way kids today carry on when jilted by love these days is a little bit excessive. Call the girlfriend!

I hope that he will have mala 'Magistrate' or 'Judge,' he could get slap on the wrist with suspended sentence. On the other hand he is a little idiot; there are millions of other girls in Japan than he could get hooked with. 'Was this girl anything or had anything special? This story itself doesn't have proper ending, is this tad locked up or police let him go? ‘POOR ROMEO, JULIET GAVE HIM THE BOOT.’ He just want to go back to his Mom and his milk bottle.

I feel sorry for this poor taxi driver, and having the bad luck of having this idiot moron looser ask to be taken all the way back to his looser hometown in looser Ibaraki. Thank god this looser did not try to hurt or kill the taxi driver!

My Malaysian friends routinely tax taxis from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka.

elbudamexicano

If you are going to call someone a "loser" four times in two sentences, at least spell it right...! Or was the passenger actually loose?

"367,000 yen taxi fare"

Heck, for 367,000 yen, you can have a 2 week luxury vacation in Hawaii. That would have done a lot more for this guy's depression than a taxi ride from Hyogo to Ibaraki.

wow..... it's almost like Japan doesn't have any worse problems than some guy who tried to skip out on his cab fare.

the driver is an idiot for accepting the fare, but still he is entitled to the money.

the outlandishness of this story does merit mention here. I'm waiting for it to show up on the western sites.

reminds me of the movie Splash when Tom Hanks wanted to go to Cape Cod. In that case he showed the money up front! He ended up quite well too.

another sad story of an unemployed jilted by a lover.., my goodness!

He said he took the free ride because he was dumped by his girlfriend

lame excuse.., geez can't you think of a better reason? this is as old as your grandmother, loser!

"the driver is an idiot for accepting the fare"

Huh? He didn't get the fare. But, hey, 367,000 yen for 8 hours' work is pretty darn tootin' good if you ask me. That's 45,000 yen an hour!

How come he didn't take a bus or the train? Much cheaper. I don't think I could ride that far with a stranger feeling depressed anyway.

Something is wrong with the taxi driver as well.

If there were no trains available, hotel for the night plus bullet train would be under 30,000 yen. Same cost for flying or even renting a car and driving yourself.

The driver should have realized that we would be screwed.

"fare" is taxi lingo for "customer", at least in the US.

Nice to see taxi drivers get screwed for a change.

"the driver is an idiot for accapting the fare"

Oh, I get it now - you mean the driver is an idiot for believing the guy would pay the 367,000 yen fare! I dunno... I think there are probably cases every week where rich people, with money to burn and don't want to get on a train or bus with other people or who don't want to/can't drive themselves, take long, expensive taxi rides.

in this economic situation in Japan, there are probably 5 people in all of Japan that could afford to do that. its common sense for any taxi driver to ask the customer the method of payment before accepting a 8 hour ride, especially since the driver has to drive back for 8 hours without anyone in the back seat!

Try taking a taxi in Manhattan and telling the guy you want to even go accross the river to New Jersey, they'll pull a Danny Glover move on you, they wont even let you get in the taxi.

Dudes, read the last line of the story, The cabbie IS getting his money. So it was a good deal for him, he can take the vacation to Hawaii.

techall - Dude, read the last line of the story again. The cabbie will get his money ONLY if the guy's friends are dumb enough to give him the money!

Sarge:

I think he will find a way to come up with the dough to stay out of jail. My guess is that the hack driver will not let this rest.

you just don't hear about this anywhere else., 8 hour cab fare? seriously...the taxi driver should have asked for money prior to even taken the damn trip. Like another poster stated, reminds me of splash, but in this case; the kid was not tom hanks or had money. Luckily, they arrest people in japan for not paying cab fare, taxi driver will make out regardless.