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Seoul taxi drivers under fire after Japanese TV exposes overcharging
The Straits Times
|September 09, 2025
Seoul taxi drivers face renewed criticism for overcharging foreign tourists after a Japanese news channel released a video of a local driver demanding an inflated fare from Japanese reporters who posed as tourists in the city, according to news reports on Sept 7.
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SEOUL -
In the video uploaded to the YouTube channel of Japanese broadcaster TBS' digital news platform News Dig, two reporters and a videographer presented themselves as tourists taking a taxi from the Myeong-dong shopping district in central Seoul to Hongdae, a nightlife hot spot in north-western Seoul.
The South Korean driver reportedly set the fare at 45,000 won (S$42), citing heavy traffic, and switched off the meter before starting the ride.
In Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi province and Incheon, the base fare for a standard taxi is 4,800 won for the first 1.6km. An additional 100 won is charged for every 132m.
This story is from the September 09, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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