ItalianoGACKT Official blog update. Translation below:
This is something from when I stayed in America for awhile in the past but I can still remember what a professor from the University on the other side told me.
【If you want to understand the economic situation of a country or city, or about the average education level of the middle to low-class citizens, along with their mannerisms, habits, thinking, danger and such, you’ll know all of it if you ride 5 local taxis】
That’s what I was told.
At that time, I didn’t quite understand what he meant but, in other words, when you ride the taxis of each country or land, you will be able to see and understand that place’s economic state, the locals’ nature will be revealed, and you’ll even understand the level of danger there by looking at the taxi driver, the state of the car, how well it’s maintained, the price of the ride, the driver’s driving ability, how he drives, and other factors.
If there are taxi drivers who are reading this content and feeling sick about it, I apologise but I hope that you will read this to the end, while considering about whether it’s really applicable or not.
For example, if you try applying this to Tokyo, no matter which company’s taxi you ride, the probability of having troubles with the taxi driver is fairly low compared to overseas. In other words, this represents the nature of Japanese.
What about words?
Unfortunately, there is only an extremely small number of taxi drivers who can speak English or a foreign language. This represents the level of education.
Well, as a country, Japan is special. Among the different income groups, most of it is concentrated in the centre of a pyramid-shaped distribution chart, and while there aren’t many people who are extremely poor, there also aren’t many who are exceptionally rich. Even if you look all over the world, such a country is rare.
And also, one of the peculiar ways of thinking of the Japanese, 【the frequent use of the idea of average earnings, average annual income】, this is completely different from other countries.
「Right now Japan’s average income is 〇〇 so, I am 〇〇」
Something like that. When comparing with the circumstances overseas,
「Thailand’s average income is 90,000 yen a month so that’s a poor country!」
are things that are commonly said.
In the first place,
you can say that the concept of average income is as good as nonexistent overseas.
The average income is nothing more than a simple evening out of all the citizens’ incomes, and you can’t see anything about the reality of the people living in that country.
If you go to Thailand or something,
there are plenty of filthy rich people, and when Japanese go there on holiday, there are even times when they find that the clubs that the young local celebs go to are so abnormally expensive that they end up going 【Impossible, impossible!!】.
In other words, the range of income classes in the pyramid is extremely wide, and a lot of people are scattered in the different categories.
That’s not a bad thing. For Japanese, they will have the tendency to think “There’s an income gap!” at first glance but this shows that this is 【a city where you can live in no matter which level you’re at】.
If you want to go up to the higher levels, you can too. If you don’t have that kind of desire, you can live life very cheaply.
On the other hand, in Japan, especially Tokyo, while it is difficult to raise the level of your life, it is even more difficult to lower it. Without a certain amount of income, you won’t be able to live at all. With a monthly income of 30,000 yen, life in Tokyo will be extremely difficult.
Bringing to topic back to taxis…
What makes Japan’s taxis different from the rest of the world’s is the overwhelmingly expensive cost of riding it. It can’t even be compared with other countries. It’s terribly expensive. The base fare is fairly expensive, but if you ride it for a long time, the price becomes even more frightening. This also represents the difficulty of living in Japan.
In the past, you’d hear stories here and there about getting ripped off by Tokyo’s taxis but in recent years, that has reduced a lot. The number of victims in the country as a whole have decreased quite a bit. And on the whole, there are overwhelmingly many more drivers who are kind compared to other countries. This represents how good the security is in Japan, and the probability of trouble starting.
Well, looking at it from a global perspective, Japan, especially Tokyo, is unusual so you can say that this is a rather rare case.
I suppose these things are heavily related to Japan’s taxi ranking system too.
Overseas, there are many countries where anyone can become a taxi driver as long as they can drive. In Japan, the hurdle is quite high even if you just want to get a license. Of course, it costs money too. This, too, compared to overseas, is quite different.
In places like Hong Kong, when I get into a taxi, there are times when I can’t even communicate in Chinese at all. Sometimes, they can’t even speak English. They can’t even speak Chinese. Then, after digging deep down, the fact is something like 『I came from Mongolia!』 or something… Such things are regular occurrences overseas. In other words, this represents the number of migrants in that city.
Right then, so what is this country called Albania like. I rode a few taxis but it’s easy to tell. Firstly, taxis that use the meter and those that don’t. At this point it’s already a funny story though,
【The meter isn’t running】
↓↓↓↓↓
【The price is named by the driver】
that’s what will happen. It has nothing to do with the distance. The price is decided based on the driver’s judgement, like whether the passenger is a local or a foreigner, and whether they look well-off or not, and whether they look like they’ll be trouble or not.
Seems like this is only natural in this country too.
『Don’t ride a taxi that doesn’t have a meter』
that was what my local friend advised but when the hotel calls a taxi for me, for some reason, most of them were taxis that don’t use the meter.
And, these rip-off taxis that travellers often mention may even charge you 3 to 5 times more than the normal price.
I suppose you can say that this is the thinking and mannerisms of the low to middle-class people of this country.
The existence of the system of deciding on the price by looking at the other party is a culture unique to developing countries but I don’t think that this system is bad. In the first place, the words “rip-off” is nothing more than the word you use when you can’t get any result from negotiating.
Well, in the past, I’d get too fired up and even fight but basically, I feel that there is some fun in a negotiation between the rider and the driver. You’ll have to talk a lot to convince them. It’s not that I enjoy disputes.
It’s because I always feel the fun in “how low can I push the unreasonable price that the other party is quoting me?”.
Most Japanese don’t like this but this is considered as a basic in business. Those who cannot negotiate money cannot do business. If you can’t negotiate a taxi fare, why are you able to deal with bigger negotiations? Those who describe the negotiation of money as 【dirty】 are simply naive.
Alright, let’s get back to talking about taxis again…
There are exceptionally few drivers in Albania’s capital, Tirana, who can speak English too. This represents the fact that majority of the low to middle-class citizens of this country can’t speak English.
But, regardless of whether they use the meter or not, all the taxi drivers are quite kind and big-hearted. Their driving is exceptionally friendly too. There was almost no aggressive driving.
Or rather, since there were no traffic jams at all, there was no need for aggressive driving.
In other words, this represents that the human nature of the people in this city is very gentle and relaxed.
Honestly, while riding the taxis this time, I never had unpleasant thoughts even once. Maybe it’s because this is after Ukraine…
Ukraine was indeed horrible…
The taxi drivers kept ranting and raving. It’s like they completely disregard the passenger, and they drive exceptionally fast, as if they’re rushing for something.
Then when waiting for the traffic lights, they will definitely stare at the driver of a car that they don’t like, and when I happen to get into a really bad taxi, they will open the window and keep shouting their complaints. You can completely tell what the character of that person in the car is.
Looking at it from a global perspective, because of problems like trouble from such taxi drivers, their bad attitude, poor prices and service, and other things, new businesses like 【Uber】 started and exploded worldwide.
This was something that a New York’s Uber driver told me but, there are already 5 other companies in New York that are following Uber, and each of them are all used quite often too.
Even around the world, in Asia, Rocket Ventures’ 【Grab】 is more widely used than Uber.
Such a flow succeeded well against the dissatisfaction with the unchanging taxis. As far as 【Uber】 is concerned, you can even say that it’s the biggest success of this century.
Well, for Japan that’s almost completely unfamiliar with 【Uber】, that’s what its like in the world.
Even so…
This city is exceptionally relaxing. I absolutely love this leisurely feeling. Hーm, I wanted to stay a little longer…
I already have to travel tomorrow.
I’ll visit again. I’ll visit this city again.
Anyway, I’m tired… I ended up walking quite a bit in the city again. My knee hurts a lot…
Alright then,
I’ll get into a taxi and go back to the hotel.
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA