Woman defecates on Tokyo street as police walk past

A video showing a woman crouching on a roadside and apparently defecating in a busy district of Tokyo has spread rapidly online.

The authenticity of the footage has not been confirmed, but it has drawn controversy by evoking a series of similar incidents involving foreign tourists in South Korea last year.

According to posts on X, formerly Twitter, a Japanese account uploaded the video on Tuesday, showing footage filmed near Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

In the clip, a woman in a yellow shirt pulls down her pants and squats over a roadside drain, appearing to relieve herself. A considerable number of people and vehicles pass by in the background. A man believed to be her companion stands in front of her with a backpack, apparently shielding her from view.

As the woman finishes and pulls her pants back up, three police officers walk past behind her. The officers appear to be on patrol and pass by without stopping or acknowledging her.

The person who shared the video wrote that the scene took place "on Wednesday morning in Kabukicho." The footage is believed to have been filmed on a roadside near Okubo Park in Kabukicho.

Local netizens reacted with disbelief, with comments including "What is this — this has to be a lie," "Has someone from that country finally shown up in Shinjuku to defecate on the street too," and "Just go to a convenience store — don't do it on the roadside."

One user said that defecating in public is in principle a violation of minor offense laws. The same user also criticized the police response, saying that if the officers chose to look the other way and leave, they could face complaints to a public safety commission or be subject to an internal investigation for dereliction of duty.

Similar incidents in South Korea last year also sparked controversy. The most widely discussed case involved a Chinese man in his 70s who defecated beneath a stone wall near Sinmumun Gate inside Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul in October last year, setting off a broader debate about public etiquette and the protection of cultural heritage sites. In September of that year, a hiker captured footage of a child estimated to be 6 or 7 years old defecating on a trail up Hallasan on Jeju Island, with the accompanying adult making no attempt to clean it up. Reports also spread of a tourist at Yongmeori Coast on Jeju leaving without disposing of a child's waste.