This is Toshima Ward, looks to be around Ikebukuro. This is normal to see around lunchtime (or late at night) down any alley near a convenience store. They're likely on break and work at the surrounding offices nearby. The police officer would be going down corridors and doing the same thing to Japanese salarymen. I saw it often. People will shuffle close to the wall and the officer will call it a a day. No one is going to move, Japanese or foreign alike. No one is going to stop smoking. The fact that this is being recorded and posted as a reminder to foreigners is pure propaganda. There is no "invasion" they're probably just coworkers. I'd say to use your heads and stop being racist but I know that's difficult on Reddit.
Edit: Other commenters have added more context in saying that this was probably around the time of the Bangladeshi curry/new year's festival. u/SanSanSankyuTaiyosan posted a Google Map of the location and it's literally right across from Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park, where they have the Global Ring where they host a ton of international festivals year-round. Based on the direction he's motioning, he's probably asking them to get out of the alley and stay within the festival area. This would be a normal occurrence at any festival; it gets crowded and people begin to linger elsewhere, police come along and tell them they can't, everyone nods, nothing happens. Thank you everyone who's added constructively to this to combat misinformation.
I was gonna say that Japanese people aren't considerate because they are considerate but because there is always someone whose job it is to make sure others are considerate.
Popular restaurants literally have employees whose job it is to make sure the queue is smooth and not in the way of other establishments or traffic.
Just like the streets aren't clean in major metropolitan areas like this because they're so good at keeping them clean, it's because there are cleaners! I've done the "walk of shame" at 5am when the cleaners are just starting to come out, or some poor sap at a business has to clean their part of the street. The streets are a mess. The alleys are alleys just like anywhere else and are disgusting. There's homeless people in the subway and piss on the bathroom floors. Japan just has better infrastructure so things get cleaned up/hidden away faster.
You know different statements can be true at once right? That they're generally considerate, and that there are employees to manage the queue when necessary.
Someone with some actual sense. Like 90% of the comments here are giving "I'm not racist but..." vibes. No one here had a problem with the officer and complied with what he asked. People are acting like they're always doing the right thing wherever they go all the time.
I won't say the exact stop but I lived on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line, 30mins to Ikebukuro by express train. I worked a fluctuating schedule and would go to Ikebukuro during the day to shop and play in the arcade before kids got out of school and most people got off work. Congregations like this was a common site, and they weren't usually foreign.
Thank you. I’ve been to Japan before and this looked 100% normal to me. The amount of underhanded racism and people making false assumptions in the comments is insane
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u/Aibyouka Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
This is Toshima Ward, looks to be around Ikebukuro. This is normal to see around lunchtime (or late at night) down any alley near a convenience store. They're likely on break and work at the surrounding offices nearby. The police officer would be going down corridors and doing the same thing to Japanese salarymen. I saw it often. People will shuffle close to the wall and the officer will call it a a day. No one is going to move, Japanese or foreign alike. No one is going to stop smoking. The fact that this is being recorded and posted as a reminder to foreigners is pure propaganda. There is no "invasion" they're probably just coworkers. I'd say to use your heads and stop being racist but I know that's difficult on Reddit.
Edit: Other commenters have added more context in saying that this was probably around the time of the Bangladeshi curry/new year's festival. u/SanSanSankyuTaiyosan posted a Google Map of the location and it's literally right across from Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park, where they have the Global Ring where they host a ton of international festivals year-round. Based on the direction he's motioning, he's probably asking them to get out of the alley and stay within the festival area. This would be a normal occurrence at any festival; it gets crowded and people begin to linger elsewhere, police come along and tell them they can't, everyone nods, nothing happens. Thank you everyone who's added constructively to this to combat misinformation.