LapLap

Thanks for expounding. I had heard about this happening in China but haven’t had this scenario play out in Japan.

Pickles

This is the MO of your classic Rappungi clip joint, but it usually involves alcohol or scantily-dressed women (probably men also these days). Never heard of it working using tea as the lure. Maybe they're targeting teetotaling food and culture-obsessed snobs?

bigshooter

Been to Japan a number of times and never had this sort of thing happen. Plenty of touts in certain areas, but I just say no and move on my way.

I also tend to bring only the cash I think I need, one easily replaced credit card, and leave my passport at hotel whenever I think i may be in a scenario where I'm convinced to go into a place that might scam me. Was worried about a girl bar/hostess bar I decided to visit in Kabukicho once but it turned out to be Japanese run and on the up and up just expensive. Have heard bad things about the Chinese run establishments though...

freecia

I think being approached by some random JP person wanting to practice English would be more likely to be cult recruitment?

cockpitvisit

Then you will enjoy Hokkaido, no worries

And if you expect lots of future Japan trips, there is no need to optimize the sightseeing and plan everything in detail anyway.

Nagasaki Joe

Foreign visitors are legally required to carry their passports, and residents their alien registration cards. Although the chances of being asked to show your passport to a policeman are quite low, not carrying it in public is a breach of the law. I once went out for a walk around midnight in Meguro-ku (in Tokyo) before bedtime with neither my passport nor alien card on me. Even though I was walking in a busy area with quite a few other people around, a policeman spotted me and asked for my papers (the only time I'd ever been asked in 40 years in Japan). Since I had none, he hauled me to the police station because I was technically breaking the law and I was given a hard time for my disrespect for Japanese law. They called my home phone number and asked my wife to come to the station with my ID. I think I even had to sign a form apologizing and promising not to do it again. Lesson learned, now I never forget to carry my alien resident card.
Being Japanese-run is no guarantee that you're protected from a scam of this sort.

jib71

Could be a cult thing. Could also be a random person who wants to practice English.

If you're actually planning to "be in a scenario," where you're scammed, I recommend carrying your passport, because there's a good chance that you'll "be in a scenario" where you have to interact with the police.

It's entirely possible that your friend got scammed by touts in Japan, but I have a feeling that they told you a fib about where it happened. Ripping tourists off at a tea house is a well-known MO for scammers in other countries, but I think it's pretty much unheard of in Japan:
https://www.denverpost.com/2012/03/2...teahouse-scam/

LapLap

It’s the “tea shop” part of this scam that I just cannot visualise or imagine, not in Japan.

There are tea houses within public parks run by local districts that can be cheaply hired for a day or half a day. Those are sometimes taken up by sales people, perhaps for fittings or viewings of their commissioned products. Who knows what kind of sales techniques are being applied at these events. That’s about the only scenario where I could conceive of a scam like that being tried out. Perhaps an R&D trial using this very temporary kind of base as a one off “pop up” to see if one could expand from the licor and skimpy clothing rube traps.
Or maybe it was something so odd and/or embarrassing that the friend did indeed just say “tea house scam” to explain the premise rather than go into the cringey details of what happened.

jib71

Scammers love a scam that the scammed person is too embarrassed to talk about.

Gradfly

Since you're visiting Sapporo and Sendai, you can visit one or both of the Nikka distilleries, Yoichi (Hokkaido) and Miyagiko (Miyagi). Yoichi appears to be more accessible compared to Miyagikyo. Miyagikyo requires a taxi ride or 20min walk from the station, if going there on a weekday. For the Nikka tours, the guide does not speak English but they will give you headsets with pre-recorded English explanations.

dtremit

If I am truly concerned about my passport being stolen, I have sometimes kept my passport card on my person and left my passport book in the hotel safe. The (US) passport card is supposed to be valid for anything but crossing an international border by air; I figure if it's not adequate as proof of identity in a particular situation I can chalk that up to a good faith misunderstanding.

That said, I mostly only worry about such things in places with a lot of pickpockets (which is to say, not Japan!) — and I figure in such places local authorities are fairly likely to understand the value of protecting one's passport.

Nagasaki Joe

Passport cards are mainly for use by US citizens who cross the Mexican and Canadian borders often, for which they can use the card in place of a passport. As such, passport cards are not likely to be known to the Japanese police, who play things strictly by the book; if they don't know it, it doesn't exist. I wouldn't advise that, as police in Japan will not likely know what a passport card is. If I were you, I would ask an immigration or customs officer when entering the country whether you can use it as an ID in place of a passport.

ksandness

When I was in Japan as a student in the 1970s, people used to come up to me and ask, "May I talk to you?" This was their opening for wanting to practice English, which meant reciting textbook sentences or dialogues at me.

The question "may I talk to you?" always annoyed me, and I couldn't figure out why. In discussing this with an American expat friend, I realized that when an English speaker says, "May I talk to you?" something unpleasant is about to ensue, perhaps criticism of one's performance at work or a friend wanting to discuss an unpleasant personal problem.

When I tried to explain this to Japanese people, they were puzzled, so I asked, "What would you say if you wanted to talk to a stranger who was Japanese?"

"We wouldn't talk to a stranger."

The word must have gotten around, since I never had anyone ask "May I talk to you?" on my return trips in the 1980s and beyond.

Nagasaki Joe

Back in the 70s, I too remember being asked on occasion “May I talk to you?”, but this was almost always in Tokyo, usually on the subway. I think the last time I was asked was probably in the early 80s, and I’ve never been asked since. In the 70s, foreigners were much fewer in number, even in Tokyo, so our presence was a rare opportunity for the aggressive English student, and some of them pounced on the chance to improve their English via the “man-tsu-man” method. Outside of Tokyo, in the prefectures, English students or adults who wanted to improve their English were more likely to try to form friendships with foreigners where they could benefit through prolonged contact and conversation. I remember after first arriving in Japan, when I was living at a place far outside Tokyo that was under renovation, the construction workers there wanted to take me and a foreign friend out drinking so they could practice their English. Thus ensued a series of night outs in which they introduced us to Japanese nightlife, such as snacks, and smokey cabarets with orchestras and hostesses (which I think have largely died out). Being new to Japan, we had a great time and they footed the bill while we let them practice their English. But you’re right, I think those days of being targeted by language learners for "on-the-spot" English lessons have largely died out.

LapLap

I just assumed that becoming married, getting older, not doing so many things on my own (and any combination of these) affected the kind of interactions that happen on my visits.

My initial trips to Japan in the 00s did still include people approaching me asking if I spoke English and could we have a conversation. I was still using the kind of hotels and lodging frequented by backpackers and heard from other female visitors who were recounting their experiences of ending up in Karaoke booths with retired and bored men (it’s usually men) who wanted reassurance that their devotion to learning Bruce Springsteen lyrics had yielded something intelligible to an English speaker and such-like, mine have involved exchanges of encouragement about each other’s efforts on park benches, although I did once have a lovely evening chatting with a much, much younger man who approached me in a restaurant (his parents were near by, I think they were thrilled to see how the lessons with his Canadian tutor were paying off). Even my mum got caught up in a couple of these in Mid-Western Japan when she ambled away from my father.

On a handful of occasions it’s been weird and creepy and I’ve backed off immediately, but generally it’s been pleasant if slightly awkward. The interactions with females do run very differently and tend to start off in a more natural manner. No need to be asked “May I talk with you?” if we’ve already begun talking. This continues. In fact, having a young child with me has given opportunities for interaction extra momentum. Since my first visit to Japan and ever since then it’s been clear what my favourite part of Japan and Japanese culture is, and it’s the older women. And it’s a love affair that gets renewed over and over across the years.