Girl knocked down on Tokyo treadmill reignites debate about the trend of butsukari not country.
A video recorded at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo is teaching many people a new word in Japanese. Butsukari (collision, translating into Portuguese) is already a phenomenon in the country, due to the several occasions that involve purposeful pushing against strangers on the street.
The latest images to go viral show a girl, visibly excited during a visit to the Japanese capital, posing for the camera her mother was pointing at her. The child is then clearly pushed on purpose by a woman, wearing a mask, who continues on her way without stopping in the famous Shibuya Crossing.
The video surpassed one million views on Instagram and generated a huge wave of indignation, according to . While many comments condemned the attacker, others questioned the mother’s decision to photograph her daughter in the middle of the busy intersection.
The episode also recalled the butsukari otokoor “push men”, a designation popularized in 2018 after a video emerged of a man ramming several women at Shinjuku station, one of the busiest in the world.
Since then, other cases have been reported. In May 2024, a 59-year-old university professor was detained in Fukuoka for allegedly attacking several pedestrians with his suitcase. In Tokyo, near Tamachi station, a woman suffered broken ribs after being hit violently, leading to the imposition of corridors delimited by dividers.
A survey carried out in 2024 among 21 thousand people concluded that 14% said they had already been victims of butsukari and 6% said they had witnessed incidents of this type.
Experts cited by the British newspaper point to a combination of social frustration, economic insecurity and tensions linked to gender roles.
Increased tourism also appears to be worsening tensions in heavily traveled areas of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. In the case of Shibuya, the girl is from Taiwan, but nothing indicates that nationality motivated the attack. The mother said she had inadvertently filmed a “terrifying scene” and regretted having been the target of insults online, despite emphasizing that she followed tourist recommendations that suggest taking photos in that location.
