In October 2024, Russian-language Telegram channels reported that posters comparing black people to monkeys and reminding them that they were not in an amusement park appeared in subway cars in Japan. It is reported that in this way transport companies are fighting inappropriate behavior of visitors. We have checked the correctness of such publications.
On October 30, images of posters allegedly hung in the subway in an unnamed Japanese city circulated on Telegram channels. One poster with the caption “Please take care of others” shows three monkeys in a carriage, disturbing other passengers: a fox, a squirrel and a mother bear and a bear cub. On another there is a prohibitory sign with a dancing black man inside it and the inscription: “No circus performances here. Japan is not a theme park." Bloggers claim that the posters are addressed to black passengers - they allegedly behave inappropriately, pester people and shoot videos for TikTok right in crowded carriages.
This was reported, for example, “Ax+"(2.2 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "KB +18"(305,000), "Dvach"(298,000), "Exploit"(168,000), Kosti (144,000), "Voblya • news"(133,000), "Broadcast 18+"(130,000), "Mousetrap"(127,000) and 4ch (110,000).
Monkey poster
The logo of the transport company is shown in the lower left corner of the poster. Toei, which operates one of the two main underground railway systems in the Japanese capital. Viral poster on the carrier's website published in the Manners Posters section along with several others. Each of them is accompanied by captions in Japanese, Chinese and English and is dedicated to behavior in a certain situation: for example, a poster with ducks calls for letting people exiting the carriage first and only then entering. As Toei explains, in this way the company is trying to remind passengers of the importance of following the rules of etiquette during the trip.
However, no racial, ethnic, social or other groups of passengers are mentioned in the corresponding section on the website. The primates depicted on the viral poster are suggest Media refer to a popular image in Japan three monkeys: covering the ears, covering the mouth and closing the eyes. However, in the poster the animals do not do this.
These posters will be available on Toei's website starting in 2023. Similar public service announcements in the Tokyo subway started posted at least three years earlier, but before that it was designed in the style of manga comics.
Thus, the transport company’s website does not say that the poster with monkeys is directed against dark-skinned tourists. This is one of a series of posters featuring different animals, demonstrating the rules of behavior on the Tokyo subway for passengers of all races, ages and genders - both locals and visitors.
Poster with a dark-skinned dancer
"Verified" could not find this poster on the site Toei, nor on the website of the operator of the second Tokyo subway - Tokyo Metro, nor on the websites of Japanese departments and organizations regulating the transport sector. Reputable Japanese and foreign media did not write about it either (unlike, for example, the poster with monkeys). The style of drawing is also different - the posters published on the Toei website are made in a style characteristic of Japanese fine art.
A reverse image search revealed that for the first time it published social network user X @LamaZense October 24 at 12:14 Moscow time. This blog often appear Anti-black posts are mostly in English. It is noteworthy that an hour later @LamaZense published an identical poster with a white-skinned character, but it did not go viral.
You can find more in this blog images about the uncultured behavior of tourists in Japan, in which the character looks sketchy and his ethnicity cannot be established.
Own authorship @LamaZense confirmed a few days later in a comment on a tweet containing his work.
However, the phrase “Japan is not a theme park” was not coined by a blogger. Recently, the country has recorded a sharp increase in the flow of tourists - only in the first half of 2024, according to data authorities, more than 21 million foreigners visited Japan, and by the end of December their number expected, will exceed pre-Covid 2019 levels. This connected not only with the lifting of pandemic restrictions, but also with a significant drop in the value of the yen, which supposedly made Japan more affordable for travelers. However, not all Japanese are pleased with the influx of tourists - back in December 2023, the council of residents of the Gion district in Kyoto called city authorities take action against foreigners who do not comply with the rules of conduct - interfering with geishas and ignoring signs asking them to keep their distance and not touch traditional kimonos. That message also mentioned a phrase about an amusement park, which later appeared in a viral picture.
Japanese government authorities listened to citizens and began to impose restrictions on tourists. So, in March 2024, the Kyoto authorities banned travelers visit some of the streets in the popular geisha district. In April, in one of the cities near Mount Fuji installed a high fence near a photo zone popular among visitors. According to the local administration, many tourists, trying to take a good photo, go out onto the roadway, disturb local residents, and also leave garbage behind. However, in none of these cases did the responsible departments lay the blame specifically on dark-skinned visitors (moreover, according to official data, the vast majority of tourists come to Japan from neighboring Asian countries).
The earliest Russian-language publication that contains posters about the fight against black tourists that “Verified” could find, appeared in the Exploit Telegram channel on October 30 at 07:44 Moscow time. This channel links to fast user X @Patrioticos_RD, who appeared the day before. Its author writes that Japanese authorities have officially banned black people from dancing indoors and posted posters comparing them to monkeys. The profile description of @Patrioticos_RD says that this blog is run by an influencer from the Dominican Republic. There is also a link to YouTube channel, where the blogger calls himself a patriotic guardian and conservative who spreads family values.
Thus, this poster, although it refers to a real problem in Japan, was not hung in subway cars in any Japanese city. The image was first published by user X, who regularly makes racist statements, and subsequently the image began to be circulated with an erroneous caption by other right-wing bloggers.
Cover photo: social networks
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