Okinawa, Japan, police have been struggling with a phenomenon called rojo-ne. Rojo-ne literally means “sleeping on the road.”
It is a horrible thing where can be seen someone laying in the middle of the road. The worse yet, when you are driving and accidentally hit those who are sleeping on the road. This is a common thing that occurs quite frequently in Okinawa, with provincial police reporting over 7,000 cases recorded in 2019 alone.
Few of them have lost their lives, this makes authorities are desperate to put an end to rojo-ne, the phenomenon that has been on the rise in Okinawa for years. Despite taking several measures against offenders, police have seen no improvements. In fact, things have been getting worse.
“First of all, I think we’re the only ones collecting statistics on rojo-ne,” said prefectural police chief Tadataka Miyazawa.
“I didn’t even know the term ‘rojo-ne’ before coming to Okinawa. I think it’s a phenomenon unique to Okinawa,”.
The real reason that causes many people in Okinawa to fall asleep on roads is alcohol, as the vast majority of offenders are heavily inebriated. Few also think that the province’s warm climate all year round, with the annual average surpassing 20 degrees Celcius, might have something to do with rojo-ne.
According to local reports, some people simply lie on the road to cool off, using the curb as a pillow, and there have been cases of female offenders taking off their clothes, allegedly thinking that they’ve arrived home.
It is actually dangerous to wake rojo-ne offenders up, as there have been cases where people under the influence of alcohol started fights with those who are just trying to help them. This is why the police advise drivers to simply turn on their cars’ emergency lights and call for police, instead of trying to wake up offenders themselves.
Source: Oddity Central