How spit on the roads paralyzes Okinawa (6 photos)

Okinawa is gripped by a strange "fever" that does not affect the rest of Japan. Every year, 7,000 cases of rojo-ne, that is, “sleeping on the road,” are registered here.





Many people know that in Japan some office workers get drunk to such an extent that they fall asleep on the pavement until the morning. You can meet someone sleeping, not a drunk, but a very decent office guy either on the steps or on a bench at the station.



Judging by the uniform... it wasn't a policeman who joined the sleeping party?!

But in Okinawa, people began to sleep anywhere. They lie directly on roads, intersections, alleys. The biggest record was recorded in 2019, when Okinawa authorities recorded 7 thousand cases of falling asleep on the road.

However, some of them were entered into police reports posthumously. On average, 16 people die from this per year. People simply drove out of the darkness onto a country road and did not expect that a person was sleeping there.

Why are they doing this?



A policeman found a guy sleeping very comfortably on the highway. I even put my hands under my head

Because Okinawa is warm most of the year, the average annual temperature is 20 percent. And the traffic on the roads is not so busy. People do not feel the danger from the highway; they go to bed where they are comfortable.

Of course, they are all drunk. But the police do nothing because they don’t see a problem. If you call the police, they will simply remove the spitting alcoholic from the roadway.



It’s immediately obvious that he’s a cultured Japanese and took off his shoes before going to bed.

Most often this happens in the summer heat, when people want to cool off outside and lie down on the pleasant cool ground.

Prefectural Police Chief Tadataka Miyazawa admits:

“I didn’t even know what the term roho-ne was until I came to Okinawa.” This is a unique local phenomenon, he said. And he didn't do anything.



What shots! Although right now to the exhibition

The only measures taken are raising awareness of the dangers and deaths through local media and radio. Those caught by the police are given a fine of about 50 thousand yen. But will this stop an alcoholic?

The funny thing is that they even recently held a photo exhibition where they showed photographs of the funniest and most dangerous people sleeping on the roads of Okinawa. Fortunately, there was plenty of material for this.



But what decent young people lay down as a couple. Because that's how it works in Okinawa!

Now Okinawans are simply afraid to drive home at dusk outside the city, so as not to become random murderers.

This is how alcoholics terrorize an entire region by simply sleeping.