Incel men are deliberately ramming into 'weaker' women to 'get off on feeling superior' on Japanese public transport in disturbing new trend

An influencer has sounded the alarm over a 'creepy' Japanese trend that sees incel men deliberately ramming into women at crowded train stations. The creator, who goes by @sandyinjapann on TikTok, routinely uses her social media platform to raise awareness about 'butsukari otoko' that translates to a 'bumping man' who carries out ramming attacks on women within the confines of busy train stations.

'Have you ever been shouldered by a man in Japan?' Sandy asked her followers. In her two-minute clip about Japan's 'butsukari otoko' epidemic, Sandy told her followers these 'bumping' men are usually categorised into four categories. 'First type, the 'Tsuisekigata' [who] lock onto a victim and ram into them from behind,' she explained. 'These ones are often perverts who get off on doing this,' Sandy continued. 'Sometimes/often, they don't otherwise have much contact with men.'.

The second type, known as 'innengata', are usually driven by a misguided sense of 'justice' and will typically yell at the woman after ramming into their victim. 'For example, for walking while using their smartphone, or getting in their way,' Sandy explained. The creator, who goes by @sandyinjapann on TikTok, routinely uses her social media platform to raise awareness about 'butsukari otoko'. The phrase literally translates to 'bumping man' who carries out ramming attacks on women within the confines of busy train stations. It first came to attention in 2018 when a video of a man ramming into multiple women at Shinjuku Station was widely circulated on X/Twitter and YouTube (above).

A 'kougekigata' bumping man will go one step further and 'assault their victims with [an] umbrella, a bag, their legs' - using women as literal punching bags to achieve their 'main goal of stress relief'. 'Last but not least, the fourth type is wagamichikata [who] go out of their way to go against the flow of pedestrian traffic to ram into their victim,' she added. Sandy described these 'bumping men' - sometimes also referred to as 'ramming men' or 'tackle men' - as 'self-centred, misogynistic and get off on feeling superior to weaker women'.

She also shared her own terrifying encounter with a 'butsukari otoko' in the clip that racked up over 200 comments, as Sandy recalled how he 'elbowed my head' during the run-in at Osaka station. 'I was standing near the ticket gate, minding my own business, looking at my smartphone, to the side, out of the way of pedestrian traffic. 'Next second, I was on the floor. Dude had helped my head,' she continued, before adding 'it hurt like a mofo'.

Japan's 'butsukari otoko' problem first came to light in May 2018, when a video of a man ramming into multiple women at Shinjuku Station was widely circulated on X/Twitter and YouTube. The unsettling 43-second clip showed a man - who gained notoriety as the 'Shinjuku Station Tackle Man' - wearing a black backpack as he walked around the precinct picking his targets before forcefully shouldering at least four women.

Since the 2018 video first sparked fears for women's safety, several commuters who have detailed their own encounters with Japan's butsukari otoko' in horrifying messages on Reddit, X/Twitter, and TikTok. While the perpetrator in that case was never identified, another 'butsokari otoko' was apprehended by Japanese police in July 2020 - after Daisuke Nagata was accused of slamming into six women at Keikyu-Kamata Station in Ota Ward.

Nagata, then 45, allegedly used his arms and elbows to bump into these women, including a 19-year-old, on four separate days, according to The Tokyo Reporter. Nagata, who worked as a 'temportary employee' at the time, denied the specific allegations against him while conceding 'I've done this dozens of times' without being caught. 'When I got off a train once, my arm happened to hit a woman's chest and it felt good,' he reportedly told police.

'So I thought about how to do the same without being accused. 'I've done this dozen times.'. However, he continued, he 'quit' assaulting women in May 2020 after realising it was 'embarrassing'. Since the 2018 video first sparked fears for women's safety, several commuters who have detailed their own encounters with Japan's butsukari otoko' in horrifying messages on Reddit, X/Twitter, and TikTok. Women are taking to social media to warn others about the menace of the 'bumping men'.

In a post on the Reddit page 'Japan Residents', one woman recalled: 'It happened twice on two different occasions. 'The first one is a very old man in his Sixties [and] the second one is a young man in his Twenties. 'They bumped into my shoulder with crazy strength - the young one hit my chin as well, really hard, and my shoulder actually bruised.'. Another woman shared how an 'older Japanese man punched me hard in the ribs next to my right breast' in an attack at Shinjuku Station - despite the fact that she was accompanied by her husband.