More than a half dozen Japanese taxi drivers claimed earlier this year to have had ghostly customers. They report that all seems like a normal fare until the phantom passengers mysteriously vanish from the back seat before arriving at their destination. According to a February 7 story on MSN.com:
At least seven taxi drivers in Ishinomaki, north-east Japan, have reported experiencing a “phantom fare” in the wake of the devastating 2011 tsunami and earthquake. In each instance, the story is similar. A taxi driver picks up a passenger in an area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He starts the meter and asks for the destination, to which the customer gives a strange response. Either then, or sometime later, the driver turns around to address the man or woman—but the passenger has vanished. This is because, it is claimed, it was a “ghost passenger” who was, in fact, killed in the disaster five years ago. (http://tinyurl.com/j797z2n)
There are several red flags that the story is implausible, beginning of course with the question of why a ghost would need to take a taxi anywhere. The origins ascribed to the ghosts by the taxi drivers are also curious: none of the reports have the ghosts explicitly stating that they were victims of the 2011 disaster; that detail seems to be assumed by the drivers, likely because of the area’s history.