撮り鉄［乙～スラ（３２）］

Fuga · July 7, 2025, 1:44am

Hey everyone!

みなさんお久しぶりでございマッチョ。

最近は色々と忙しくて全然投稿してなかったけど、復活だぜ！

日本は7月に入ってからバチクソ暑くなったけど、みんなが住んでいるところはどんな感じ？
とりま、日本に住んでるみんなは無理せずに、健康ファーストで毎日を過ごしてくれ！

今日のトピックはここ数年色々と物議を醸してる、撮り鉄！

撮り鉄とは？

As suggested by the characters used in this word, 撮り鉄 is anyone that likes to take pictures of trains.

This became a hobby for many people around the time railroads started to spread across Japan because this was also around the time where cameras became more available for normal people. Due to this, it is said that 撮り鉄 is one of the oldest オタク activities in Japan. Because all you need is a camera and access to trains (which is not very difficult in Japan) to enjoy this hobby, it is a very easy hobby to get into.

電車オタクと撮り鉄の違い

What is the difference? 電車オタク is anyone who likes trains, and 撮り鉄 are 電車オタク that like to take pictures of trains.

This means 撮り鉄＝電車オタク, but 電車オタク≠撮り鉄.

Disliked on the internet and in real life

What I am about to write does not apply to all 撮り鉄, but because of the minority of 撮り鉄 that has caused some trouble throughout the years, people from the internet and IRL have negative perceptions of them.

Not too many people have positive impressions of 撮り鉄. Why is that? This is because when they take pictures of trains, they crowd in one specific spot and set up their gear on train platforms or on roads, which blocks commuters from accessing trains smoothly, or disrupts the flow of traffic, which can be rule breaking (or illegal in some cases). Not only are they disliked by the general public and the internet, but they are also disliked by the 電車オタク community too, because the general public puts them all into one category and gives them a bad name.

Why not remote locations?

You might be thinking, why do they not go to remote locations? Well, they actually do go to remote locations, but a lot of the time, these remote locations they choose are private property. Some will go out of their way to trespass into someone’s property just to get the best picture. When those pictures end up looking nice and popular, these locations become public, which leads to more people trespassing on to private property.

Although it is possible to take pictures from locations that would not bother people, 撮り鉄 tend to flock to stations and popular photo shoot spots because they have a template they follow, and there is a limited amount of locations where you can take pictures following the format.

They follow this format because they believe that this is the best format to use, to capture the true beauty of the train.

対策

Over the last few years, as the number of 撮り鉄 rises, there have been many countermeasures put in place to stop 撮り鉄 from breaking rules/laws.

One of the countermeasures put in place by JR blew up on the internet and was very well received by the general public.

This was targeted towards 撮り鉄 that were being nuisances.

As you can see, this poster was written in all hiragana and they wrote it like they were talking to children. They took this approach because their previous countermeasures did not work, so they thought maybe treating them like kids could work.

Another countermeasure they take now is that trains turn their highbeams on when passing through platforms or photoshoot spots with 撮り鉄, especially if they are causing a disturbance or if they know that they are somewhere they shouldn’t be in. This countermeasure was put in place so that people would get discouraged to go out of their way to break rules and laws.

Memes

Since they always have their cameras on, they do capture some meme-worthy videos.

This is a video that took the internet by storm a few years back.

In this video, a person oblivious to what’s going on passes in front of a group of 撮り鉄 and ruins their photoshoot. As they angrily approach the man on the bike, known as the 江ノ電自転車ニキ, they start demanding monetary compensation, by saying 「さすがにやべぇ、金だろ金。」. This phrase became a meme and people started using this phrase for a while when any sort of inconvenience was caused.

Although they are not well-liked, the internet has a love hate relationship with them since they do provide good memes. Due to the fact that 撮り鉄 has existed for such a long time, I cannot introduce every meme about them but if you are on the internet, you are bound to find memes or topics covering them.

Conclusion

Since this is a community with a huge number of people, it is important to remember that not all 撮り鉄 are bad. It is just a small percentage that ruins it for everyone, just like in any other community.

今日はここまで！今日も読んでくれてありがとう。

みんな暑さに負けないようにね！

Fuga

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!

Previous posts

PS: If you are interested, I have made a deck that has most of the slang that I have covered so far, and more will be added as this series continues!

Neon_Kitsune · July 7, 2025, 2:31am

Ok, writing the warning sign in hiragana is hilarious! They did kinda sound like children in that video, though!