I read the following bizarre anecdote on the Tokyo subreddit. The person who posted it (Craft_zeppelin) said he went to a train station to buy some tickets when a "random old man" cut in front of him to use the ticket vending machine. So, Craft_zeppelin used the machine next to the one the old man had commandeered. He said the old man "stared at me and started muttering unintelligible words at me."
As Craft_zeppelin approached the ticket gate, the man blocked him by moving in front. Craft_zeppelin said, "I gestured him forward because I was feeling nice." But after they both went through the gate, the old man moved in front of him again, and Craft_zeppelin bumped into him. The old man grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, began screaming at him, and pushed him against the wall. Craft_zeppelin called security, who then summoned the police. From Craft_zeppelin's account:
The staff at the station heard our accounts of the story then a policeman arrived and he went downstairs to rewind the recorded CCTV camera footage. He came back like 5 mins later and flat out said to the old man "あなた、何がしたいんですか?" (What the hell you want?)
The old man started to explain himself and the policemen said, "We saw the footage, this young man allowed you to go first at the gates, how is it even physically possible for you to collide with him unless you waited on purpose and jumped in front of him?"
Was this a case of a "bumping uncle?" Here's a November 2023 Yahoo Japan article about these weirdoes:
There is no end to the nuisance of "bumping uncles,'" who deliberately ram into women at crowded stations or other crowded places. Although it has a humorous name, it is a serious crime of assault, and if someone is injured even if they are careless, it can become a crime of negligent injury."
One of the weirdest incidents I had in the station.
byu/Craft_zeppelin inTokyo