Rejected when offering a seat.

I travel the Tokyo train quiet a lot and I always offer my seat to the elder ones, but get refused and with a condescending "Hai, hai", without even looking at me.

I'm not sure if they think that I'm calling them old for offering a seat in front of everyone and they wanna act tough or I am missing something. most of the times I offer my seat they get offended rather than thankful. In my home country in Spain it's a pretty normal thing to do.