crime

Man arrested for refusing to pay taxi fare from Kyoto to Tokyo police HQ

22 Comments

A 54-year-old man was arrested for fraud on Thursday after he failed to pay most of the fare of a taxi he took from Kyoto Prefecture to the headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Yoji Tanaka, an unemployed man of no fixed address, got in a taxi in Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture, at around 1 p.m. and told the taxi driver he wanted to go to Hikone City in neighboring Shiga Prefecture, but on the way asked the driver to take him to the MPD headquarters in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.

Tanaka gave the driver 10,000 yen but didn’t pay the balance of roughly 60,000 yen when they arrived outside the police headquarters about 7 hours later. Tanaka got out of the car and approached an officer on duty, telling him that he had come by taxi from Kyoto but didn’t have enough money, and he was arrested on the spot.

Tanaka told police he didn’t have a reason for coming to Tokyo, and said that he had gotten out of prison a few days ago.

© News reports

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

22 Comments
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3 hots n a cot with minimal health care and clean sheets to boot. Sounds like the fellah found the responsibility of life too much to bear and chose the nicer prison and got some sightseeing in on the way.

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pretty clever huh ^w^

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Looney tunes.

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the guy is nuts but the taxi driver is just as nuts for driving him so far without checking if he had sufficient funds.

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Only seven man yen? It would almost be cheaper to take a taxi for three than take the 'shink'.

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70k from tokyo to tokyo?? no way! it has to be more!

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lol, i meant from kyoto...

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Statistician, I was thinking the same thing. As for this guy, obviously he has seen real Japan and doesn't like it. A non-violent crime. Wonderful! As for the taxi driver, man this group of people as a whole are stupid and dirty. What a looser. Where is the taxi drivers name in this story? What taxi company? details details details.

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I love these stories. The taxi driver is willing to drive for hours on the whim of the passenger, but isn't willing to be so rude as to check that the passenger can pay for such an unusual request.

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Yeah, this kind of thing has happened before...taxi driver agrees to take people halfway across the country, without checking if they can pay. I'm kind of surprised the taxi companies don't have some sort of limit on distance they will travel. Perhaps these stupid and greedy drivers are independents?

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At first I thought this guy was an epic dumbass, but it's the perfect crime to commit if you want to go back to jail - delivered him right to the police station.

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I still would blame the taxi driver...who the hell takes a taxi for 7 hours?!

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LOL, gotta agree with ya TheguyNextdoor! During a seven hour drive, i would think that the topic of why aren't flying or shinkansening it? Weird... Driver Fail.

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This is about the third time this has happened recently, and the cab companies NEVER learn. The drivers see a big fat yen sign on the driver's forehead, but never bother to question if the person is legit or not.

Bad on the cab company, good on this guy for showing them the way. Of course I'm not applauding the man or anything, but it was a 'classy' way to be sent back to prison for a while, and he got a more or less free ride there.

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I hope the driver won't be held accountable by the company.

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It is tough being a cab driver. What are they supposed to do but take a fare where they say they want to go? The story does not end with the arrest, after all. The cabbie has to get back in his cab and drive home with nothing. He gets his punishment instantly. I generally despise cab drivers for different reasons, but I would be the first to admit that they have always been honest in transactions with everyone I know, and they have a really bad life. The risk/competition profile is so bad that the collusion does not make up for it. And remember, no tips.

I had a Kyoto cab driver give me money back once. I asked him why and he told me he thought of a shorter route while driving that he COULD HAVE TAKEN, but didn't. He started to explain the actual turns he should have made, but I waved him off. Uh. Thanks bud. If that had happened in New York, a vortex would have occurred that would have ripped the fabric of space/time.

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Cab drivers can't really ask passengers if they have the money to pay the fare. Wouldn't you feel offended if they would ask you? I feel sorry for the cab driver, he won't have to pay for the fare of course but he didn't earn anything during that time either. The liberalization of taxi companies some years ago made their life really hard, competition has become stiff and many taxi companies lowered their fares this year to attract more business, only most passengers don't realize this. I respect them because I would never be able to put up with those long, unhuman working hours and yet they are always smiling.

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theguy, we did have one fool take a taxi from Narita to Atsugi. He paid the fare but the company wouldn't reimburse him.

Yeah, I expect this fellow decided to try the public acommodations in Tokyo. Maybe they told him to get out of Kyoto? Not a bad stunt if your homeless, unemployable and broke. He didn't hurt anybody. Guess that's the upside.

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I'm pretty impressed with a taxi driver that can get from Uji to Tokyo by way of Hikone in just 7 hours -- it shuld take longer that that!

Nisegaijin, I'mnot surprised about the low fare. There are some very cheap taxi companies in Kyoto compared to the insane Y710 that they're taking in Tokyo. I once asked a driver how they were able to stay profitable with such reasonable rates (Y550, I think, but this was before the '08 oil shock), and the driver chalked it up to larger numbers of tourists making short runs, and the fact that the streets are well-laid out and easy to manage, so you can get to places quickly.

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theguy: You would be surprised how many people take taxis for even more than 7 hours. Instead of renting a car, they often book taxis for 2 days on sightseeing tours...usually the rich shachou with his young mistress.

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"he had just gotten out of prison just a few days ago" ??????

If this is true, that's a scary thought because this guy obviously isn't "right" for society if he's doing something like this... thank god it wasn't a violent crime. Are the prison's doing anything to make sure ex-cons are ready for society? or do they just let'em "run wild" ???

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Criminals out of prison are still criminals and will ever be... Once commited, this status belongs to them. I can guess, he has no family (or they won't take care of him anymore), so he decided to do something special... It was his day to remember...

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