- Five common tourist
scams in Tokyo, Japan. I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions, I do travel guides that are
fun, informed, and entertaining. And in this video, I'm going
to be telling you things to keep you safe in Tokyo. And now Tokyo, it's one of the
safest cities in the world, and so you might be wondering, Chris, why are you making a video
about scams and Tokyo? I thought you've told me before that nothing happens in Tokyo. Well, with the 2020 Olympics coming soon, it's going to bring lots
of new tours to Tokyo-- (record scratches) Now you might be thinking,
2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chris, are you in some
sort of weird time warp, and how did you get to Japan? Well, actually, I recorded this video in February of 2020, right
before the pandemic hit, when the Olympics were still happening. Well, it's 2021 and the
Olympics are going on right now. So I figured, what better
time to release this video? Let's get back to it. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police
have been putting up posters, warning tourists of some
common scams that happen. And it's actually also been written up in the Japan Times and the Guardian about the increase of some of these scams. So I want to share them
with you to keep you safe. The first most common tourist
scam in Tokyo is rip-off bars. This typically happens in the areas of Shinjuku, Shibuya,
and Roppongi at night. And basically what happens
with these rip-off bars is someone approaches you on the street and advertises some sort of
'all you can drink' special, something like 4,000 yen
for all you can drink. And it typically works out
that it's a timed special, 30 minutes for all you can drink. And then every drink you order after that might cost 4,000 yen for each drink. So make sure if somebody
approaches you on the street and advertises some really
inexpensive price for drinks, you actually know what
you're getting into. And actually, one of the
things I would say is, if somebody ever approaches
you on the street and wants to invite you
into their establishment, probably don't listen to
them and don't go with them. And some of these bars, to be extra shady, they'll actually take
pictures of the guests with the alcohol they're ordering to show it to the police
if they come asking. Tokyo tourist scam number two,
this is the free drink scam. You go into a bar where they advertise, The first drink is free. And it usually also starts
with somebody approaching you on the street, letting you know that, Hey buddy, come with me,
free drinks at this bar. Well, it turns out only
the first drink is free. The second drink is probably 10,000 yen or about a hundred dollars. And what happens if you
don't have any money to pay? Well, generally, some really big guys are going to forcibly escort you to the ATM to make sure
you can get some money out. Tokyo tourist scam number
three, the spiked drinks scam. This happens when you're
at a bar and they give you a little bit more to drink
or they drug your drink so that you don't remember
what happened all that much. And why do they do that? Well, they particularly target people that are using credit cards because then they end up
charging your credit card for much more than it
was supposed to have been because you don't really
remember what happened when you get that bill the next day, or you see your bill a month later, and it was 30,000 yen or 300 dollars. You're like, did I really order that much? And they particularly target foreigners because they know foreigners generally don't go to
report it to the police. And so moral of the story is,
if you're going out drinking, leave your credit cards and
debit cards back in the room, just bring cash. And if something like
this does happen to you, well, then actually make sure
to report it to the police to help stop these sorts of fraudsters. Tokyo tourist scam number
four, drink back girls. So these people who
approach you on the streets, it's actually been banned and illegal in certain parts of Tokyo,
particularly in Shinjuku, they've outlawed people
approaching people on the streets to invite them in the bars.
So what are bars doing? Well, they're partnering up with women who then go on dating
websites, Match.com, Tinder. They hang out there. And then if you're a guy and you say, Hey, why don't we meet tonight? Well, they will invite
you to their special bar, it was probably one of these rip-off bars, that then they bring you there to drink, the drinks are really expensive, but you really want to
impress that girl, right? Well, it turns out she's probably getting about 50 percent of every expensive drink that you're buying for her. So just beware, if you meet up some random stranger from Match.com, you might be the one to recommend where you want to go to drink. And another moral of this
is when you're looking for a place to drink or somebody
taking you someplace, if it's some place that's like, three levels below ground or
seven stories above ground, like, that might be kind of shady. You know, the best places are like, places that are street level. You see other people in there. And the final moral of this is that like, if the place just looks shady
or the situation looks shady, get out of there before bad stuff happens. Scam number five, the model scouting scam. This one often happens to young women that are walking alone at night. Someone will approach you,
if you're a young woman and say, hey, would you
like a job in modeling? I can take you someplace. I can introduce you to some people. This is likely not what you want, the modeling might not be of the sort, Japan has a really big adult video scene, also a lot of maid cafes and bars that are always looking for young women. So young ladies, avoid the guys that are going to come up to you at night and offer you anything. Now, please don't let all these things discourage you from visiting Tokyo. As I mentioned earlier, Tokyo was one of the
safest cities in the world that you could visit as a traveler and more often than not,
people come back from Tokyo with great stories about
the local Japanese, helped them, help them
out, were very friendly. There are a few bad apples though, and I want to make sure
that those few bad apples definitely don't ruin your trip to Tokyo. Well, Hey, if you're coming to Tokyo, you might enjoy watching
some of our additional videos where Topher and I take you around Tokyo, give you more travel tips. You'll find the links
or description below, or a few of them on the screen right here. As usual, we won't say goodbye because we'll see you in the next video.
