【Original Coverage】Haneda Airport White Taxi Epidemic|Ride-sharing PR strategy in Hazama?

One morning in March 2024, I headed from Shinjuku Busta to Haneda Airport. The purpose is to find out the actual situation of white taxis, which were reported by the major media all at once. In December last year, Good Travel News News reported on the issue of white taxis arranged by several foreign-affiliated OTAs at Haneda Airport. (Photo: Not related to the characters / Haneda Airport Terminal 3 1st floor)

On the TV YouTube channel on March 12, I learned that a Chinese national who committed a white taxi act at Haneda Airport on February 8 this year was arrested at his home on March 11. The man is suspected of transporting five tourists from Hakone to Haneda Airport for 40,000 yen without permission. In addition, it was reported that the man had a monthly income of 600,000 yen and had earned 4.8 million yen since July last year.

The scene of the car escape and the arrest in the exchange between the investigator and the suspect, which is believed to have been immediately after the act of white taxiing at the airport, was reported by all Civil Code bureaus, according to the video distribution of each station's YouTube channel. NHK has not been able to confirm any reports of the arrest of the suspect.

In December 2023, Good Travel News News reported that foreign-affiliated OTAs such as Booking.com were suspected of being involved in the dispatch of white taxis at Haneda Airport. article I did. In response to this issue, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is said to have lobbied the Japan Tourism Agency, which in December requested that foreign-affiliated OTAs not introduce the Hakutaku ride-hailing service. Here is a list of LDP MP Takei's post in X.

We are coordinating with the Japan Tourism Agency to respond to not only white taxi operators but also malicious OTAs (online travel agents and overseas travel agencies) by the end of this year, including the announcement of the names of companies that do not change. https://t.co/q7cWjfdMoU

— Shunsuke Takei (@syunsuke_takei) December 15, 2023

I'm in Taiwan and haven't seen it yet, but Teletext's "World Business Satellite" broadcasts that I was interviewed in advance.
Illegal white taxis at airports and issues with overseas travel sites that are not bound by the Travel Agency Act. It's a niche topic, but we got quite a response. @tak_goto43 Thank you very much. pic.twitter.com/1H3g8KHzuC

— Shunsuke Takei (@syunsuke_takei) December 26, 2023

As a measure to prevent white taxiing, "Since around 2019, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Metropolitan Police Department have been working together to regularly conduct awareness-raising campaigns such as distributing educational leaflets to foreign tourists visiting Japan at major airports nationwide" (Motor Vehicle Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). Recently, awareness-raising activities were held at Narita Airport in December last year and at Haneda Airport Terminal 3 on February 8 this year to coincide with the Chinese New Year.

According to the latest TV reports, the act of white taxiing is still going on and is being mediated on Chinese social networking sites. A month earlier, in mid-February, it was reported that five men and women, Japan and Chinese, had been arrested for acting as a white taxi. Two of the arrests were made via Booking.com, a foreign OTA that was questioned in December, and three were recruited via a ride-hailing app in China.

There are two main routes for white taxis. The first is foreign-affiliated OTAs such as Booking.com, which are not bound by Japan's Travel Agency Law, but are required to take social responsibility as a company operating at a branch office in Japan, and have a relationship with the Japan Tourism Agency. The second is China's social media and ride-hailing apps, where the actual situation is unclear and illegal activities are being carried out.

To Haneda Airport Terminal 3

I departed from Shinjuku Busta and arrived at Terminal 2 just before noon. I asked the airport staff who were walking, "Where is the white taxi stopping?" "I don't see it in this terminal, but it seems to be common in Terminal 3," he said.

I came to Terminal 2 as usual. I was convinced that if the Chinese were involved in the white taxi, it was indeed an international flight, and I moved to Terminal 3. Is it finally time for a decisive battle? When my mood was high, I first took a break at Tully's. Later, when I asked the security guard, he said, "I see a white taxi on the other side from the police box on the first floor." Beyond the police box? Is there a white taxi act being carried out near the police box ...

When I walked from the central area on the first floor of the terminal, there was a police box. If you google it, you will find the name "Tokyo Airport Police Station Terminal 3 Police Box". There was one police officer in the police box. When I told him that I had come for an interview and told him that there was a sighting of a white taxi on the other side of the police box, he said, "Oh, I'm not in charge, but the main office will come to crack down." When I asked, "Once a month?" he smiled and said, "Yes."

Sensing the situation, I left the police box and a group of three young police officers walked by. When I asked him the same question, he said, "I'm not in charge, but I heard that you can see it over there." I had a somewhat strange impression when I replied that I was not in charge of the white taxi act near the airport police box, but I was also convinced that the vertical structure was the same as the government office. On the other hand, if the big issue of arrest is involved, the authority will be even stricter.

After that, I heard from the cleaning staff and limousine bus staff, "There are many white taxis over there." Ordinary taxi drivers say, "It's full of white taxis." All of them said that white taku was the norm here.

To the White Taxi Zone

There are more Alphards and vehicles like it than I imagined. The color of the license plate number of the parked vehicle is about the same as white and green for business. The white taxi car is said to be an Alphard, but green license plates have been seen for a long time, and of course it is used for private use. In the driver's seat of the Alphard with a white license plate that is parked, a man is alone staring at his smartphone.

It's a matter of course, but I assume that I must be interacting with customers on the app. If so, let's say, "Would you like to take me for a ride?" From the passenger window on the sidewalk, he sends a nice gesture to the driver and points to one finger to send the message, "Can I go alone?" The opponent shakes his head.

Next, I ask him to pull down the window and tell him, "Yoyakunaike do Norrel?" but he still shakes his head. At this point, when I ask, "Dareka Yoyaku Arca?" he shakes his head. The other party doesn't seem to speak Japanese very well. At this point, I noticed that I was talking to him in Japanese for some reason. The car left the scene. It was an unnatural exchange, so I thought that 80~90% of the time it was a white taxi, but then I repeated the same thing twice in about 10 minutes. After questioning the driver, only the first one left the scene.

Later, a man is seen going back and forth with his phone. It seems to be stopping the Alphard. I thought it was a white taxi driver, and when I finished the call, I asked, "Hitori no Rel?" The man stares back at me with a smug face. The atmosphere became unsettling, so I told him, "Sumimasen, Shirotakshuzaide...", and he asked back, "Do you mean the TV?"

Japanese doesn't seem to be a problem. When I tried to connect the story, I said in normal Japanese, "A person who sold more than 4 million in six months was arrested," and he said the name of the suspect with the honorific title "Mr. 〇〇".

When I asked him if he knew him, he said, "I don't know, I don't know," and he said, "I run a company, and my monthly income is 4 million." When I apologized for asking a rude question, he said, "I know which one is a white taku" (~I ask about its characteristics~), and finally he told me, "But I hardly speak Japanese." Shortly thereafter, the man left the airport with the woman in his car, who had come down from the arrivals hall. Monthly income of 4 million yen? What kind of person is this man?

Later, when I compared the characteristics of the white taxi I heard from the man and the parked vehicles, there was a possibility that about 2 out of 10 cars were white taxis. This time, we believe that we have been able to confirm the situation where white taxiing is active. In addition, I learned that while white taxis are frequently carried out near the police box, there are no routine investigations or detections because the main office is in charge of cracking down.

Major Media Reporters and Police

The TV report that triggered this interview showed investigators trying to persuade the suspect in the driver's seat, the car sped off and fled, and the suspect was taken from his home on another day. When the police deal with incidents such as fires and robberies, or incidents with some social theme, major media outlets that are members of the Police Press Club may accompany them to the scene.

It may be only one company or several, and a TV with the ability to transmit instantaneous information is valuable. In major newspapers, the words "according to those involved in the investigation" are included in the articles, but there is a difference in the information covered by the reporting capabilities of each company, and the tone of the article reflects the characteristics of each media.

Reporters from major media outlets have been working at local bureaus for a long time since they were new graduates, and they have experienced what is known as a night raid and a morning run. It would not be an exaggeration to say that his basic skills as a reporter were cultivated through his relationships with the police in his youth, and that experience is the foundation of his work.

Reporters have been involved in public relations for many years, so they have contact with major media reporters. I asked reporters several times about their relationship with the police when they were rookies, and they explained that it was difficult, but they didn't give me details.

White taxi crackdown and ride-sharing ban lifted

I digress a bit, but back to the story. Certainly, the issue of white taxis is a social theme. On the other hand, the police are aware of the situation of the white taxi, but their detection seems to be limited.

So, is the fact that the arrest of the suspect who committed the act of white taxiing was reported through this TV report a deterrent to white taxi? Through this interview, I got the impression that even after the TV report, white taxi acts are actively practiced at Haneda Airport.

On the bus heading to Shinjuku, I saw an online article reported by the Mainichi Shimbun and its affiliate Sponichi that Toru Tamagawa, a commentator on the morning show of Tele Asahi, mentioned the relationship between ride-sharing and the arrest of a suspect who committed a white taxi act in the program. As for ride-sharing, I was thinking the same thing on the bus heading to Haneda Airport, just as Mr. Tamagawa was performing on the program.

So far, the government and the business community have explained that the lifting of the ban on ride-sharing will eradicate illegal white taxis. With that in mind, the relationship between the white taxi report and ride-sharing is not something that we would notice right now.

After the news of the arrest of the suspect on March 12~13, posts such as "Crack down on white taxi" and "Ride-sharing should be allowed" spread on SNS "X" all at once. On March 13~14, major media outlets reported that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had approved ride-sharing services in some areas of the four prefectures.

If you had been in charge of publicizing ride-sharing, what kind of strategy would you have developed? This time, it seems that the example has been shown.

At the time of writing this article, I watched the report of the suspect Bai Tak again. The moment I saw the suspect's face, it took my breath away. I felt like I met him recently...