Published on August 10th, 2025
Yesterday in Omotesando, I was walking to a shop when a van came by with loudspeakers blaring about “God” and “Lord Jesus Christ.” I don’t believe in any gods, I can’t stand being preached at in public, and they were way too loud. To top it off, they were shouting in English… in Japan.
I noticed them first while I was still inside my car, on my way to the Apple Store. I was listening to music and I still heard them loudly. Here's a short video I took after I parked, right in front of the Apple Store:
To be honest, I have no idea of what they were saying because it was so loud and distorted. It felt just like the hate speech those ultra far-right nationalists spew from their black trucks.
Needless to say, I found this extremely annoying.
Personally, I don't believe in any gods. However, I think that you should be free to believe in whatever you want, as long as you don't try to impose your beliefs on others, and as long as you don't make it other people's business.
These people were making it everybody's business.
When you blast your stupid preaching at full volume on a relatively quiet public street, or when you attack LGBT people, or when you try and ban abortions for everybody because of your misguided understanding of what a person is... then you're pretty much deserve to be mocked into oblivion.
The cherry on the cake is that these idiots were blasting their nonsense in English, in the middle of Tokyo. How can they be so dumb?
Here's another video from my drive recorder a few minutes earlier, at the end of Omotesando Avenue. It was the same van, which means they were doing rounds again and again:
My opinion is that this behaviour extremely annoying and disrespectful, just like those tourists/influencers who ride the subway blasting music at full volume through a big speaker.
If you want to promote your religion then do it like the Jehova's Witnesses in Japan: they stand quietly in corners on the street or in front of stations distributing pamflets. Their religion is just as fake, but at least they don't disturb anybody.