Suspects also ironically ripped off train companies to do it.

Although Japan is a fairly safe country, there exist certain criminal elements who engage in violent acts, destruction of property, thievery, and train photography. As odd as it might sound, the otaku subset who like to take pictures of trains, known as “toritetsu” in Japanese, appear to be responsible for an inordinate amount of crimes and anti-social behavior.

Of course, it should be noted that not all train photographers are menaces to society, but for some reason that I don’t think anyone has been able to pinpoint yet, heading out to various locations and capturing images of rolling stock seems to awaken an urge to lash out at the world in some people.

▼ Gragh! This makes me want to punch something!

Much of the time, the crimes are directly related to the hobby, such as stealing to buy better equipment or assaulting others who get in the way of a perfect shot. Other times, however, it seems that crime is just a way of life for some toritetsu.

For example, the Osaka Prefectural Police recently arrested six men in their early 20s for shoplifting 111 items valued at about 410,000 yen (US$2,800) from shops inside the 2025 Osaka-Kansai World Expo. All of the men belonged to the same toritetsu group in Tokyo.

According to police, the men all took the Shinkansen from Tokyo, having only purchased the minimum 150-yen ($1) ticket to enter the gate. Once on board, they communicated with each other from separate locations on the train to dodge the conductor as they passed through to check tickets, and then worked together to avoid detection, hopping the gate on the way out.

▼ News report outlining their devious train ride to the Expo

They also fraudulently entered the Expo using discounted tickets for students aged 12 to 17, and specifically chose the date of 26 June, knowing that a new stock of Expo children’s clothing made by Familia was arriving and would fetch a high price on the resale market.

Their shoplifting was not limited to those goods, however. Having done so on a past visit and gotten away with it, the men were emboldened and brazenly stuffed a range of Expo souvenirs into their bags and then stashed them in lockers before going back for more. At one point, another customer saw what they were doing and reported them to Expo staff, leading to their arrest.

Many online comments pointed out the irony that these people who devote so much of their free time to the trains of Japan would rip off the very companies that run them. It should also be noted that though reselling is not a crime, the act has a bad reputation in Japan, as more aggressive resellers have made it hard for fans to get limited edition items and kids to get Happy Meals. So, in addition to being looked down upon for their crimes, these guys’ goal of selling off their stolen products makes them that much more unsavory to the general public.

“I would expect train photographers to have enough respect for train companies not to rip them off.”
“People who truly love trains don’t ride them for free.”
“They’re trying to look like badasses in the video while getting arrested for shoplifting dolls.”
“To sum up, these guys are anti-social, fare-dodging, reselling, thieving train photographers? Amazing…”
“This was a pretty sophisticated plan, only to throw their lives away for a few thousand yen.”
“I thought train photographers were just annoying, but they’re way worse than that.”
“They’ve clearly done this way more than they’re being arrested for too.”
“Again with the train photographers?”
“These idiots are making the reputation of toritetsu even worse.”

In addition to the suspects’ laundry list of crimes and misdeeds, they certainly are not doing the wider train photography culture any favors. Surely, there must be some toritetsu out there somewhere who are content with just taking and admiring pictures of trains in idyllic scenery?

It stands to reason that people who just go out, take pictures, and go home don’t make the news, which results in a certain amount of media bias. But among otaku groups, none seem to come anywhere close to toritetsu’s frequency in making headlines for bad reasons. Hopefully, some sociologist or psychologist will take up the challenge of unravelling why such a seemingly tranquil hobby is having such a bad influence on some people around Japan.

Source: Jiji.com, The Sankei News, Yomiuri Shimbun Online, Friday Digital, YouTube/ANNnewsCH
Featured image: ©SoraNews24
Insert images: Pakutaso, ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!