Why wouldn't the taxis in Roppongi pick me up at 4 AM tonight?

Question

Maybe it's just because I'm a little peeved, but I've never had such a hard time getting a taxi in my life!! I literally waited out in the rain for about one and half hours trying to flag down a taxi.

No one else around me had this problem!! Is it because I'm a 外人?? I wasn't drunk or rowdy or any of that.

I know how to identify a vacant and occupied taxi with the Kanji. So it wasn't like I was trying to flag down a cab with someone already in it. But I would walk up to an empty cab and be turned away. They wouldn't open their doors for me. This happened about 15 times.

How do you identify an operating taxi versus a non-operating one? I'm hoping I'm just being too sensitive and it was really something I didn't notice and missed in the dark.

Please someone explain this to me so it doesn't happen again.

Answer 1

Were other people being picked up?  I know that a lot of taxi drivers don't like driving in heavy rain/snow, so they'll often ignore potential customers.  

If they were being picked up, then I don't know what to say.  I've caught taxis innumerable times well after midnight throughout Tokyo and have never been turned down, so I really don't think the drivers are racist or anything like that.  The same goes with my friends - they've never been rejected either.

I'm a white male.

Answer 2

Why taxi drivers must pick unfamiliar stranger who might not speak Japanese at all with potential problem in early morning at Roppongi?

They have no obligation for their service. If you really want to get in, you'd better not try to pick the street surfing taxi but go near hotel or call reservation first.

The way how to distinguish empty or occupied/reserved is the top light sign of body is on or off.  Anyway 4AM in Roppongi is not good for getting taxi even more if it is raining. You should make a reservation in advance.

[phone] is one of  the reservation number.

Answer 3

That must have been tough, in all that rain.

If you were near the station, it might have been because there is a designated taxi wait/pickup post, and drivers are not supposed to pick up a customer near it.

Answer 4

sorry to say, but it's probably because you're white. guys don't want the hassle driving a foreigner unless you're with someone who looks Japanese.

Answer 5

maybe the drivers think you look scary?  It does sound frustrating.

Answer 6

because it would be tomorrow

Answer 7

Probably because most cab drivers don't speak much english (or any other foreign language) and don't want the hassle of trying to figure out where you want to go.  Also, lots of "tiny white female" hostesses in the area flag down the cab and are soon followed by their big male colleagues.