Photo not related to article. [Getty Images Bank]
Photo not related to article. [Getty Images Bank]

A video of a Korean YouTuber confronting a so-called "butsukari" shoulder-bumper on the streets of Japan has gone viral, drawing attention to a practice that has long been flagged as a social problem in the country.

The YouTube channel "Mad Bro," which has around 650,000 subscribers, posted the video Tuesday under the title "Yuk Eun-young-ssaem gives a lesson to a shoulder-bumping villain in Osaka, Japan."

The footage shows Yuk walking through the streets of Osaka with companions when a man forcefully bumps into one of them and walks on.

Initially suspecting the collision might have been accidental, Yuk followed the man and watched as he repeatedly shoulder-bumped oncoming pedestrians.

The man appeared to deliberately target people who seemed physically vulnerable — women, foreigners and young students — and continued the behavior while laughing with a companion, seemingly enjoying himself.

Yuk stepped in front of the man and confronted him sharply, demanding to know why he kept bumping into people and telling him to stop, before giving him a shoulder bump of his own. The man looked flustered, said "Sorry" in English and walked away.

Online commenters reacted with satisfaction. "That was so satisfying," one wrote. Others noted that the man "immediately apologized the moment he ran into someone bigger, after targeting only weaker people," and said "this kind of behavior absolutely has to be stopped."

Meanwhile, "butsukari" — known in Korean as "eokkae-ppang," or shoulder-bumping — has consistently been raised as a social problem in Japan. Recently, the issue drew renewed attention after a member of Korean girl group Lisn and a broadcaster each shared accounts of experiencing similar incidents while traveling in Japan.


choigo@heraldcorp.com