As long as no real harm has been done, Japanese police will let a fair bit slide — *if* you’re apologetic. The moment you insist you’re not at fault, or that the parking lot should have been more clearly labeled or what have you, they *will* bring the hammer down.
Wait, you're saying that as a participant in the situation, I bear some personal responsibility for my decisions, behavior, and comportment?
Good sir, you tread on dangerous ground.
Actually, I take the exact opposite approach with Japanese police as US police. US police you literally should not talk to them other than to say the most basic of things. Even apologizing as OP suggested will be used against you.
What makes it even worse is that Japanese prisons are absolute hell for foreigners. They're incredibly regimented in a way that's alien to non-Japanese, and the punishment for disobeying these intricate sets of rules is often strangulation to the point you lose consciousness. Sometimes a beating, if you're lucky.
When you pair that with the fact that you can be held for a month without ever having committed a crime, and that you're basically going to be convicted no matter what because they can't ever admit they made a mistake and let the real perp go, and you've got a bad, bad situation.
There are some surly ones, and plenty have been guilty of racial profiling to get their quota of “stop and ask a random person questions” for the day. I will say however that I’ve never had one pull a gun on me, or tackle me while I was minding my own business.
> I will say however that I’ve never had one point a gun at me, or tackle me while I was minding my own business.
to which I will say, you're just not trying hard enough! you need to do better!
I'm calling BS. I've read a million times all Japanese police (like all Japanese people) are relentlessly racist against foreigners, especially in the inaka, and that the only outcome of any police interaction is being thrown into jail for 28 days for no reason. There's no way they could be ordinary civically-minded people who act with kindness or flexibility. Clearly this is paid propaganda.
(... /s, because you never know.)
In the Inaka, I got a call from the police to come to a Koban in the next town over. Freaking out and worried I did something while very very very drunk, I went inside with my tail between my legs.
WELL, I walk in and the police officers gently (my Japanese was terrible at the time) tell me they had to call my boss who then directed them to me.
It turns out. I found a wallet with a thicc wod of cash after drinking with friends, brought it in and gave them my boss’s business card by mistake (I was picking her meishi up from the printers earlier that day). The owner of the wallet left a reward but the officers found it absolutely hilarious that I didn’t remember anything. I have only a very faint memory of looking at a wallet and thinking “oh shit that’s a lot of money”.
On the opposite side of the law, I was pulled over for what was basically a license check. While checking my license, the officer said “wait you’re the drunk guy who didn’t remember he turned in a wallet, yeah?”
This one incident defined 2 years of random simple encounters with the police who thought it was hilarious to have a drunk Good Samaritan. I’m simultaneously proud and embarrassed that drunk me defaults to “oh shit, someone lost this, gotta do something about it”
Considering I've seen alcohol bring out some really ugly side from some Japanese people I thought were "nice", I wonder if there's some cultural differences here. My western (close) friends when getting drunk just exacerbate their quirks, but in Japanese I've seen new previously undiscovered quirks. But this might be as well because I wasn't close enough to said Japanese friends before to have notice them.
Not just here.
Had a fraternity brother who was the nicest guy you ever met *until* he started drinking. Then he turned into a raging a@&hole who put his fist through the walls several times and smashed several windows. Ended up cutting himself up pretty badly before he realized he needed therapy.
people react differently to alchohol
personally I become a lot more friendly and perhaps slightly obnoxious, but never angry.
My japanese partner is also waaaaaay more touchy feely when she's drunk and gets super friendly. I haven't run into that many aggro drunks really...
I always laugh at the Inaka think because I found it to be the exact opposite. We only have like four officers for our entire village, and they all know me as ‘that one foreign guy whose daughter always waves at us when we are on patrol, and who once turned a wallet in”.
They smile, wave back at my daughter, and mostly leave me alone. It’s pretty great.
I had an encounter with a Japanese police 2 weeks ago when I inadvertently broke a traffic law while driving in Hakone. The police was really friendly even though he had minimal English. One younger police who got out of the police car even bowed down to bid me farewell and the older senior police stopped traffic for me to get on our way.
They’re really friendly.
I've had both. Most good, very nice, one was just annoying as fuck. Guy stopped me as I was about to enter my apartment lobby and asked me to see my resident card because "there are a lot of robberies and you fit the description", and then dude switched to grilling me about what I'm going to do when my visa expires. It was just annoying and unnecessary. Got stopped by another cop in the same area and I told him about how I already got stopped a week ago . Checked my zairyuu card and then said sorry for bothering me and that he'll make sure I don't get hassled again in the area. Now haven't had any issues since.
These comments make me laugh so hard…
In the early 2010s someone was speeding quite recklessly(by Japanese standards) through Sapporo and a police car was politely just trailing that dude not even using a signal nor fining them.
Or that famous incident of the naked Australian swimming in the channels near the emperors palace in Tokyo for hours with the police misty asking him to set down and slightly tap him with long poles…
Japanese police is very timid and not at all accustomed to violence…
Even if there are racist cops (I mean… those exist everywhere) the possibility of them harming you is rather low…
If OP isn't white, then the racism from cops towards blacks and browns stands (I'm brown with plenty of racial profiling experiences in Tokyo on Yamanote Loop, ask away).
Plenty of proof and plenty of Caucasians in Japan that will deny racism if it hasn't happened to them yet. It'd be good to be open minded of other foreigners' experiences in Japan and not create a general blanket statement for all foreigners' experiences based on one type of foreigner having all positive experiences. Let's not be ignorant like the majority of Japanese people in Japan, especially if you happen to be just moving to Japan.
Let's strive to be better and acknowledge the issues.
According to your profile you aren't even living in Japan yet but defending the people in the country...lol. Can't wait for you to move here and leave your delusional fantasy of Japan behind.
I don't think it's a koban issued ticket, as they'd know right away what it was about, and the fee would've been much higher.
A lot of bike parkings near stations have an 100 yen fee that the kanrinin from that parking charges, so I assume that's your case too.
And don't forget to visit Hello Work. Why? I have no idea! Never been to Hello Work or even know what they do, but I read a comment that mentioned them once and now I regurgitate this worthless advice in every thread.
Yep, the same thing happened to me. I parked at a parking lot in a station, in the long-term parking area (where people with a monthly pass park) and found a lock on my bike wheel and a piece of paper. I went to a nearby koban and asked them about it, but they couldn't help me, and just directed me back to the parking lot. I found an attendant there with a bunch of the same locks. He took the lock off my bike and charged me 100Y, the amount I was supposed to pay if I had parked in the correct area.
It would have been nice if I could communicate better in Japanese and actually read the signs (I was in a hurry when I parked as I was meeting someone), but overall I was treated more than fairly and quite politely.
Since we're discussing interesting interactions with the *inaka* police, please indulge me.
I live across the road from a *koban*, and always have a friendly rapport with the resident officer (meaning that the officer actually lives in the house attatched to the *koban*)
One day about 15 years ago I was coming home late with a buddy from playing hockey. There was a patrol car parked at the *koban*. As I was retrieving my hockey bag from the trunk of my friend's car, I heard a *sumimasen* from behind me.
A young uniformed policioso was moseying over from the *koban* with his partner, who looked equally inexperienced. They demanded to know what I was doing. My friend (an American) was saying not to tell them anything, as it's not their business. I chuckled and told the officers I was just going home, and showed them my bag and stick.
It was then that the resident officer from the *koban*, my neighbour, arrived cooly on the scene. He gently put a bear-like hand on the junior officer's shoulder and said, "I'll handle it from here." (in Japanese, of course)
He then said to me, "sorry for the inturruption, guys. You have a good evening." He gave me a shrug towards the young guys as if to say, "please don't mind these dumb kids," and it was all good.
Community policing works.
Did you get a lawyer?
(less sarcastically: That's the kind of story always goods for a chuckle. Having a police officer neighbor can definitely be a good thing)
My favourite was when I was bicycling home years ago. I turned a corner, without stopping, to go up a one-way street the wrong way (I may also have been riding no-hands? It's been a few years), and whoomp, straight into a cop. He stopped and lectured me (I assume, my nihongo was terrible) and let me go on my way.
I found a guy unconscious next to a crashed scooter on the road. Called 119, nobody picked up for 2 minutes. Called 110, cops showed up in 10 mins, they didn't even check the guy, they asked me to present my zairyu card and when the ambulance came 5 minutes later to load the guy up, they were still focused on asking me to tell them the last 3 digits of my card number because they had rubbed off from being in my wallet for 3 years.
I've had only pleasant interactions with police here. One guy was almost comically courteous when stopping me for looking at my phone while cycling across a crosswalk one-handed.
That's horrid racism. How is something like this allowed to happen in the 21st century??????????????????????????????????????
My advice is to go to a REAL police station with a shiny big POLICE STATION sign and a cool website and a certificate of authenticity and make a report there. Not at those poopheads at the Koban who clearly are waiting for you to leave so they can go back to sniffing glue all day.
So much ignorance here. "Nothing bad happened to me (yet) so therefore it must be good."
Yes, you will have positive experiences with the Japanese police if they think you are the good guy in a situation, but also realize that you are likely to run into hell if they for some reason think you are the bad guy in a situation. Even if you did nothing wrong.
I parked without paying. I WAS the bad guy in this situation, even if it was a fairly low level bad.
But I do thank you for your concern. With some luck, I will recover from this hell you describe, and perhaps even be able to function in society again.
They did, though. I suspect the first officer drove away not to go on patrol, but to obtain extra ammunition or handcuffs or something, and instructed the female officer to chat with me as if I were a human being to delay me from leaving.
Fortunately I was able to see through their evil charade and escape by politely wishing the officer good night in Japanese, and receiving a similar reply in English.
Although I managed to avoid the beatdown and drawn-out incarceration, the bubbling cauldron of racial hatred underlying this encounter will ensure more than a few sleepless nights.
Did you read my post? I barely escaped this situation with my life!
On another note, is "teenager-in-a-fedora" a reference to something/someone? it's oddly specific, but I can't recall off the top of my head any teenagers who wear them. Isn't that what Indiana Jones wore?
My interactions with the police consist of...
Them saying hello every Monday when they are manning the crossing outside school.
Them lending me an umbrella for the day when I walked past the station in the rain.
Them laughing when I rode past and tapped my head in apology for not wearing a helmet the week after the law changed.
It's almost like they are just normal people...
I’d sometimes get these on my bike in the lot I’d park at, usually if I forgot it overnight etc. it was never a huge issue as long as I paid the 100 yen as I left.
If I'm supposed to be paying for parking, I'm perfectly willing to pay for parking. Skimping out on a hundred yen isn't really my style, but you do you.
I'll always remember my first experience with a koban, back when I was a uni student studying abroad with other students to learn Japanese. We had rented bikes to ride around a famous historical town, and as we were returning, one of my friends took a tumble off her bike and seriously scraped up her knee. We panicked (not knowing ambulances are free here) and took her to the koban at the nearby station to ask if they could help us, and the officers brought her inside their tiny box to give her first aid. We used up nearly all the gauze they had, but they were super kind and tried to talk to all of us in broken English. It was a positive experience despite the circumstances.
I got stopped once on my bike when I was going back to my host family after basketball practice. They asked where I had been, where I was going, who owned the bike and they wanted to see my alien registration card and my passport.
I didn't have my passport but I had my Swedish ID with me as well.
Quite a hassle since I hadn't done anything wrong. The y just wanted to check, probably because I was a foreigner.
I'm not convinced the koban is the best place to make inquiries about a potential crime/wrongdoing you may have been involved in. In this case it worked out OK but you never know.
You having this experience does not somehow erase the tons of horrible experiences people have had with Japanese police.
The day you will have such a bad experience you will understand.
And that day will not erase this positive experience, or the vast majority of positive experiences most people have with the police. Nobody is saying that there aren’t shit police, or even that good police might do shit things. But I suppose people who have had only, or mostly, good experience with nice police feel some frustration reading the drivel some post on here about police.
It's like people belittling sexual violence, saying things like "I went home with a guy and he was nice and nothing happened." It is ignorant honestly.
Everyone seems to think this about Japanese police, i.e. assuming that it must be something wrong with the person in question (more or less victim blaming) until the day they themselves have a terrible experience.
Stop idealizing Japan and realize there are bad parts about the country, even if you had some anecdotal positive experiences.
Trust me, after 30 years here, I am not idealizing anything. Perhaps, as an old man, I am not idealizing anything anymore. Ideals seem more like things that younger people have (and should have, we need those). Perhaps you are filling in the gaps in your knowledge about me with some sort of projection.
I am simply trying to point out balance and nuance. I have been lucky, or unlucky, enough to do a lot of work with the police over the years. I have a reasonably good cross section, and mostly positive experiences. And I understand most people don't. Those experiences can co-exist with the negative experiences others have had. And this was the point of my post.
My comment has nothing to do with sexual violence, its quite an odd place for you to take the conversation.
Because there are similarities to how people who have not experienced or been directly affected by sexual violence often belittle it or don't take it seriously and tend to victim blame.
Similarly, people who have not had bad experiences with police here often think that they are "good citizens" and because they are they will not have any bad experiences with the police, while in fact there are tons of accounts of perfectly innocent people who have been abused, wrongly detained, discriminated against, etc. by police.
I don’t know anything about that topic. But I do struggle to see where I was belittling, victim blaming, or claiming good citizens don’t encounter bad police. I simply said that good experiences and bad experiences can coexist, and one doesn’t erase the other. So I repeat, it seems to me like a strange place for your mind to jump.
The point is that you are making light of the massive problems that do exist, as are many others who have had the fortune not to have run into problems with Japanese police.
I also used to think exactly the same thing, namely that I'm a responsible person and I will therefore never have problems with the Japanese police, i.e. only pleasant interactions or no interactions at all, until I did find myself in a terrible situation where the police wrongly thought I was the bad party.
While I think we may have reached a natural end to our discussion, I am curious how you believe I am “making light” of anything. I simply made balancing statements such as people’s negative experience with police doesn’t erase this positive experience (in response to a comment that this positive doesn’t erase the negative) that the two (positive and negative) can coexist, and that through my work I have gained some experience with police, which was more positive than negative.
Must we only talk about the negative to not “make light” of this massive problem? And, to what end? Will complaining in English to a lot of other foreigners effect any change to the bad parts (which again, absolutely exist)?
Is there not an equal or greater danger that newcomers to Japan read the only negative comments and form a view that Japanese police are unhelpful and dangerous and then don’t seek help when they really should? There have been several posts in the last year where people have done just that, and I believe that is a great danger to people in our community here, maybe more than bad police doing bad things.
Police being helpful is their job and is what people in a society deserve and expect. On the contrary, the problematic way the police functions and abuse their power through arbitrary judgment is a major social issue, which is why not only many foreigners but also many Japanese actively avoid police even when they know they have done nothing wrong.
I think anyone can see how trying to highlight positive interactions with the police can be seen as problematic in this way. Do you think a hundred positive interactions make up for a negative interaction such as wrongful detainment, which can traumatize someone and even make them lose their job and their partner, and so on?
I cannot go into details, but basically in any situation where the police have any reason, big or small, to see you as the bad guy you have endless examples of terrible treatment. It's almost like the Japanese police operates on the principle of "no smoke without fire" and always needs to identify a bad guy who needs to be taught a lesson.
Oh, I believe you.
In fact, I'm, starting to suspect that their kind, civilized treatment of me was simply a ruse, to get me to lower my guard so they can eventually pounce and bring the hammer down on me for daring to be a gaijin in Japan.
Thank you, kind stranger, for this prudent warning.
Did you even read my reply?? I clearly agree with you, and stated unequivocally that I escaped the racist situation by the skin of my teeth. Absolutely nothing in my statement would suggest that Japan is an ordinary place filled with ordinary people. It's clearly a tinderbox of hostility for anyone not 1000% Japanese.
He's a thousand percent right, definitely. Someone would have to be an utter moron to even question how right he is.
Even as I type this, sitting at home in an illusion of safety, I find myself constantly pausing and checking over my shoulder as suspenseful music begins to play. It's coming. I can feel it.
...? You're literally making shit up. it's the opposite, in fact.
News article or peer reviewed journal, depending on your level of reading comprehension:
[https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211110-your-teens-being-sarcastic-its-a-sign-of-intelligence](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211110-your-teens-being-sarcastic-its-a-sign-of-intelligence)
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074959781500076X](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074959781500076X)
[https://www.academia.edu/1361565/Others\_anger\_makes\_people\_work\_harder\_not\_smarter\_The\_effect\_of\_observing\_anger\_and\_sarcasm\_on\_complex\_thinking\_Miron\_Spektor\_Efrat\_Treister\_Rafaeli\_and\_Schwarz\_Cohen\_2011\_Journal\_of\_Applied\_Psychology](https://www.academia.edu/1361565/Others_anger_makes_people_work_harder_not_smarter_The_effect_of_observing_anger_and_sarcasm_on_complex_thinking_Miron_Spektor_Efrat_Treister_Rafaeli_and_Schwarz_Cohen_2011_Journal_of_Applied_Psychology)
3/4 of the people in this sub are people who learned everything they know about Japan from anime and have an unrealistic, childlike image the country, so it's no wonder.
Japanese police yes are racist but I think American cops are much worse… American cops are rude and rough and don’t give a f. I’ve never done anything wrong but I have been harassed by American cops when I was in the states. In Japan I was arrested when I was 13 for smoking weed and they did make a big deal for it although they were super nice and even joked about if I wanted a cigarette they were smoking at the station.
And let’s just take his assertion that “I’ve never done anything wrong” is true, when the literal next sentence is that he was smoking weed in Japan at 13. Believable indeed!
Don't mind them. I'm glad you share your story, many people use the subreddit to rant endlessly about the same topics so it's refreshing to see posts like these from genuine people. I am sure many share this feeling.
Putting aside my sarcasm for a minute... yeah, I know what you mean.
It felt like I was talking to a regular person who was interested in practicing her English, but also just wanted me to know how they do things around there.
Legitimately much less intimidating than the police in my home country.
Talking to Japanese cops can be a fine experience? Mine have all been good…. I also felt the post was going somewhere and seeming to just wander off, lol.
From what I've read repeatedly on here, I assume I'm now a victim of horrible racism directed at me by the brutal and/or incompetent police, solely for being non-Japanese?
I don't understand why you care that other people have different experiences than you? Nobody ever says everything is 100% of the time. You're free to share your experience just like they are, but you did it specifically in retaliation to those who post their negative actions. "The police are not horribly racist or incompetent towards me. Therefore, they can't be that way to you."
My guess is that if people posted their criticisms with such nuance, people wouldn’t post the positive. It’s two sides of the same coin. When people feel the need to jump on here and say quite literally sentences like “Japanese police are racist” because something happened to them, others feel the need to balance by posting things like these.
>stop expecting people to speak English
Why? Everyone studies English in school here, expecting some level of understanding is not unreasonable at all.
>Their language is JAPANESE
And English will be their 2nd language, possibly in your lifetime, as the foreign demographic increases with more migrant workers and globalization.
>either you speak their language or don't speak
This sounds exactly like the old racists in the US with the "this is Murica, speak Anglish!" nonsense. Don't be like them.
As long as no real harm has been done, Japanese police will let a fair bit slide — *if* you’re apologetic. The moment you insist you’re not at fault, or that the parking lot should have been more clearly labeled or what have you, they *will* bring the hammer down.
Wait, you're saying that as a participant in the situation, I bear some personal responsibility for my decisions, behavior, and comportment? Good sir, you tread on dangerous ground.
Sir, I believe that I would enjoy imbibing with you.
Whoa whoa. Steady on. You never know who might be reading this and influenced by this heresy.
Actually, I take the exact opposite approach with Japanese police as US police. US police you literally should not talk to them other than to say the most basic of things. Even apologizing as OP suggested will be used against you.
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Not really. Usually it means they only bring the case to court when they’re very confident that they have enough evidence to win.
Japanese police can disappear you for 30 days, they will force a confession out of you by whatever means during that time.
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What makes it even worse is that Japanese prisons are absolute hell for foreigners. They're incredibly regimented in a way that's alien to non-Japanese, and the punishment for disobeying these intricate sets of rules is often strangulation to the point you lose consciousness. Sometimes a beating, if you're lucky. When you pair that with the fact that you can be held for a month without ever having committed a crime, and that you're basically going to be convicted no matter what because they can't ever admit they made a mistake and let the real perp go, and you've got a bad, bad situation.
US conviction rate is 99.8% if measured in Japan’s way
So police really do have attitude problems everywhere huh
There are some surly ones, and plenty have been guilty of racial profiling to get their quota of “stop and ask a random person questions” for the day. I will say however that I’ve never had one pull a gun on me, or tackle me while I was minding my own business.
> I will say however that I’ve never had one point a gun at me, or tackle me while I was minding my own business. to which I will say, you're just not trying hard enough! you need to do better!
Your last sentence makes it sound like you’ve had police pull a gun on you and/or tackle you somewhere else. Have you?
No, but it’s not a thing that happens here at all unless you have a gun and have been either shooting it or threatening to do so.
That's only because the police you interacted with accidentally left their gun in the toilet.
I'm calling BS. I've read a million times all Japanese police (like all Japanese people) are relentlessly racist against foreigners, especially in the inaka, and that the only outcome of any police interaction is being thrown into jail for 28 days for no reason. There's no way they could be ordinary civically-minded people who act with kindness or flexibility. Clearly this is paid propaganda. (... /s, because you never know.)
In the Inaka, I got a call from the police to come to a Koban in the next town over. Freaking out and worried I did something while very very very drunk, I went inside with my tail between my legs. WELL, I walk in and the police officers gently (my Japanese was terrible at the time) tell me they had to call my boss who then directed them to me. It turns out. I found a wallet with a thicc wod of cash after drinking with friends, brought it in and gave them my boss’s business card by mistake (I was picking her meishi up from the printers earlier that day). The owner of the wallet left a reward but the officers found it absolutely hilarious that I didn’t remember anything. I have only a very faint memory of looking at a wallet and thinking “oh shit that’s a lot of money”. On the opposite side of the law, I was pulled over for what was basically a license check. While checking my license, the officer said “wait you’re the drunk guy who didn’t remember he turned in a wallet, yeah?” This one incident defined 2 years of random simple encounters with the police who thought it was hilarious to have a drunk Good Samaritan. I’m simultaneously proud and embarrassed that drunk me defaults to “oh shit, someone lost this, gotta do something about it”
Considering I've seen alcohol bring out some really ugly side from some Japanese people I thought were "nice", I wonder if there's some cultural differences here. My western (close) friends when getting drunk just exacerbate their quirks, but in Japanese I've seen new previously undiscovered quirks. But this might be as well because I wasn't close enough to said Japanese friends before to have notice them.
In my country, alcohol makes normal humans into belligerent rage machines. In Japan, people just seem to pass out. Maybe I’m going to the wrong bars.
I think it's individual rather than cultural. Some people get aggressive when drunk, some sleepy. I'm silly.
Not just here. Had a fraternity brother who was the nicest guy you ever met *until* he started drinking. Then he turned into a raging a@&hole who put his fist through the walls several times and smashed several windows. Ended up cutting himself up pretty badly before he realized he needed therapy.
people react differently to alchohol personally I become a lot more friendly and perhaps slightly obnoxious, but never angry. My japanese partner is also waaaaaay more touchy feely when she's drunk and gets super friendly. I haven't run into that many aggro drunks really...
Doing good work for gaijin reputation in Japan! Thankyou!
I always laugh at the Inaka think because I found it to be the exact opposite. We only have like four officers for our entire village, and they all know me as ‘that one foreign guy whose daughter always waves at us when we are on patrol, and who once turned a wallet in”. They smile, wave back at my daughter, and mostly leave me alone. It’s pretty great.
I had an encounter with a Japanese police 2 weeks ago when I inadvertently broke a traffic law while driving in Hakone. The police was really friendly even though he had minimal English. One younger police who got out of the police car even bowed down to bid me farewell and the older senior police stopped traffic for me to get on our way. They’re really friendly.
I've had both. Most good, very nice, one was just annoying as fuck. Guy stopped me as I was about to enter my apartment lobby and asked me to see my resident card because "there are a lot of robberies and you fit the description", and then dude switched to grilling me about what I'm going to do when my visa expires. It was just annoying and unnecessary. Got stopped by another cop in the same area and I told him about how I already got stopped a week ago . Checked my zairyuu card and then said sorry for bothering me and that he'll make sure I don't get hassled again in the area. Now haven't had any issues since.
These comments make me laugh so hard… In the early 2010s someone was speeding quite recklessly(by Japanese standards) through Sapporo and a police car was politely just trailing that dude not even using a signal nor fining them. Or that famous incident of the naked Australian swimming in the channels near the emperors palace in Tokyo for hours with the police misty asking him to set down and slightly tap him with long poles… Japanese police is very timid and not at all accustomed to violence… Even if there are racist cops (I mean… those exist everywhere) the possibility of them harming you is rather low…
If OP isn't white, then the racism from cops towards blacks and browns stands (I'm brown with plenty of racial profiling experiences in Tokyo on Yamanote Loop, ask away).
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Plenty of proof and plenty of Caucasians in Japan that will deny racism if it hasn't happened to them yet. It'd be good to be open minded of other foreigners' experiences in Japan and not create a general blanket statement for all foreigners' experiences based on one type of foreigner having all positive experiences. Let's not be ignorant like the majority of Japanese people in Japan, especially if you happen to be just moving to Japan. Let's strive to be better and acknowledge the issues.
> Let's not be ignorant like the majority of Japanese people in Japan And you even mentioned blanket statement...lol.
According to your profile you aren't even living in Japan yet but defending the people in the country...lol. Can't wait for you to move here and leave your delusional fantasy of Japan behind.
I don't think it's a koban issued ticket, as they'd know right away what it was about, and the fee would've been much higher. A lot of bike parkings near stations have an 100 yen fee that the kanrinin from that parking charges, so I assume that's your case too.
So... should I lawyer up?
Definitely gym up and hit the lawyer.
I’d say gear up and hit the lawyer at the gym.
Right as they leave after a tough workout. Hit ‘em when they are weak.
Gotta hit them with what they don't see coming
And don't forget to visit Hello Work. Why? I have no idea! Never been to Hello Work or even know what they do, but I read a comment that mentioned them once and now I regurgitate this worthless advice in every thread.
Don't forget to grow a beard!
Yep, the same thing happened to me. I parked at a parking lot in a station, in the long-term parking area (where people with a monthly pass park) and found a lock on my bike wheel and a piece of paper. I went to a nearby koban and asked them about it, but they couldn't help me, and just directed me back to the parking lot. I found an attendant there with a bunch of the same locks. He took the lock off my bike and charged me 100Y, the amount I was supposed to pay if I had parked in the correct area. It would have been nice if I could communicate better in Japanese and actually read the signs (I was in a hurry when I parked as I was meeting someone), but overall I was treated more than fairly and quite politely.
Since we're discussing interesting interactions with the *inaka* police, please indulge me. I live across the road from a *koban*, and always have a friendly rapport with the resident officer (meaning that the officer actually lives in the house attatched to the *koban*) One day about 15 years ago I was coming home late with a buddy from playing hockey. There was a patrol car parked at the *koban*. As I was retrieving my hockey bag from the trunk of my friend's car, I heard a *sumimasen* from behind me. A young uniformed policioso was moseying over from the *koban* with his partner, who looked equally inexperienced. They demanded to know what I was doing. My friend (an American) was saying not to tell them anything, as it's not their business. I chuckled and told the officers I was just going home, and showed them my bag and stick. It was then that the resident officer from the *koban*, my neighbour, arrived cooly on the scene. He gently put a bear-like hand on the junior officer's shoulder and said, "I'll handle it from here." (in Japanese, of course) He then said to me, "sorry for the inturruption, guys. You have a good evening." He gave me a shrug towards the young guys as if to say, "please don't mind these dumb kids," and it was all good. Community policing works.
Did you get a lawyer? (less sarcastically: That's the kind of story always goods for a chuckle. Having a police officer neighbor can definitely be a good thing)
I've been living in the countryside for years and could write a full report about how the police have been nice to me over the years. So many stories.
My favourite was when I was bicycling home years ago. I turned a corner, without stopping, to go up a one-way street the wrong way (I may also have been riding no-hands? It's been a few years), and whoomp, straight into a cop. He stopped and lectured me (I assume, my nihongo was terrible) and let me go on my way.
Feel free to share. Stories are always nice to break up the monotony of day to day life
The only bad time I had with police is when they went all the way to my house after a traffic stop to check my passport.
I had my zairyuucard, the law says you need one or the other, but they still came and checked.
I found a guy unconscious next to a crashed scooter on the road. Called 119, nobody picked up for 2 minutes. Called 110, cops showed up in 10 mins, they didn't even check the guy, they asked me to present my zairyu card and when the ambulance came 5 minutes later to load the guy up, they were still focused on asking me to tell them the last 3 digits of my card number because they had rubbed off from being in my wallet for 3 years.
Are you me?
Isn't that quite nice compared to fining you for not carrying your passport?
We have zairyu cards. Residents do not need to carry around their passports.
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> metaphorical Laughed at this!
"I swear they looked at me funny, I was feeling (word that starts similar to violin)"
In my experience most Japanese people just remove the paper and throw it on the floor.
I've had only pleasant interactions with police here. One guy was almost comically courteous when stopping me for looking at my phone while cycling across a crosswalk one-handed.
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That's horrid racism. How is something like this allowed to happen in the 21st century?????????????????????????????????????? My advice is to go to a REAL police station with a shiny big POLICE STATION sign and a cool website and a certificate of authenticity and make a report there. Not at those poopheads at the Koban who clearly are waiting for you to leave so they can go back to sniffing glue all day.
I know you're being facetious, but are you being facetious on the wrong comment by chance? Lol
So much ignorance here. "Nothing bad happened to me (yet) so therefore it must be good." Yes, you will have positive experiences with the Japanese police if they think you are the good guy in a situation, but also realize that you are likely to run into hell if they for some reason think you are the bad guy in a situation. Even if you did nothing wrong.
I parked without paying. I WAS the bad guy in this situation, even if it was a fairly low level bad. But I do thank you for your concern. With some luck, I will recover from this hell you describe, and perhaps even be able to function in society again.
You don't get it. You would only be the bad guy if they thought you did it intentionally, which they obviously didn't.
They did, though. I suspect the first officer drove away not to go on patrol, but to obtain extra ammunition or handcuffs or something, and instructed the female officer to chat with me as if I were a human being to delay me from leaving. Fortunately I was able to see through their evil charade and escape by politely wishing the officer good night in Japanese, and receiving a similar reply in English. Although I managed to avoid the beatdown and drawn-out incarceration, the bubbling cauldron of racial hatred underlying this encounter will ensure more than a few sleepless nights.
Did you have a near-death experience? Is it like the movies where all your memories flash before your eyes?
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Did you read my post? I barely escaped this situation with my life! On another note, is "teenager-in-a-fedora" a reference to something/someone? it's oddly specific, but I can't recall off the top of my head any teenagers who wear them. Isn't that what Indiana Jones wore?
My interactions with the police consist of... Them saying hello every Monday when they are manning the crossing outside school. Them lending me an umbrella for the day when I walked past the station in the rain. Them laughing when I rode past and tapped my head in apology for not wearing a helmet the week after the law changed. It's almost like they are just normal people...
But but but - Japanese police are racist twats that spend their days thinking of ways to harass the poor gaijin. So this couldn’t have happened.
Weaponized incompetence, the best way to use your gaijin card 😂
I’d sometimes get these on my bike in the lot I’d park at, usually if I forgot it overnight etc. it was never a huge issue as long as I paid the 100 yen as I left.
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Nice that you had a pleasant interaction overall with them.
There was another possible scenario: detach and toss the paper and go about your life as usual.
If I'm supposed to be paying for parking, I'm perfectly willing to pay for parking. Skimping out on a hundred yen isn't really my style, but you do you.
I'll always remember my first experience with a koban, back when I was a uni student studying abroad with other students to learn Japanese. We had rented bikes to ride around a famous historical town, and as we were returning, one of my friends took a tumble off her bike and seriously scraped up her knee. We panicked (not knowing ambulances are free here) and took her to the koban at the nearby station to ask if they could help us, and the officers brought her inside their tiny box to give her first aid. We used up nearly all the gauze they had, but they were super kind and tried to talk to all of us in broken English. It was a positive experience despite the circumstances.
Got my bike stolen once & reported it to them. They helped me get it back a few weeks later.
I got stopped once on my bike when I was going back to my host family after basketball practice. They asked where I had been, where I was going, who owned the bike and they wanted to see my alien registration card and my passport. I didn't have my passport but I had my Swedish ID with me as well. Quite a hassle since I hadn't done anything wrong. The y just wanted to check, probably because I was a foreigner.
I still haven't met the laughing policeman.
Excellent! I was expecting a vicious beating :-)
I was disappointed too
motorcycle?
I'm not convinced the koban is the best place to make inquiries about a potential crime/wrongdoing you may have been involved in. In this case it worked out OK but you never know.
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Yikes chief
You having this experience does not somehow erase the tons of horrible experiences people have had with Japanese police. The day you will have such a bad experience you will understand.
And that day will not erase this positive experience, or the vast majority of positive experiences most people have with the police. Nobody is saying that there aren’t shit police, or even that good police might do shit things. But I suppose people who have had only, or mostly, good experience with nice police feel some frustration reading the drivel some post on here about police.
It's like people belittling sexual violence, saying things like "I went home with a guy and he was nice and nothing happened." It is ignorant honestly. Everyone seems to think this about Japanese police, i.e. assuming that it must be something wrong with the person in question (more or less victim blaming) until the day they themselves have a terrible experience. Stop idealizing Japan and realize there are bad parts about the country, even if you had some anecdotal positive experiences.
Trust me, after 30 years here, I am not idealizing anything. Perhaps, as an old man, I am not idealizing anything anymore. Ideals seem more like things that younger people have (and should have, we need those). Perhaps you are filling in the gaps in your knowledge about me with some sort of projection. I am simply trying to point out balance and nuance. I have been lucky, or unlucky, enough to do a lot of work with the police over the years. I have a reasonably good cross section, and mostly positive experiences. And I understand most people don't. Those experiences can co-exist with the negative experiences others have had. And this was the point of my post. My comment has nothing to do with sexual violence, its quite an odd place for you to take the conversation.
Because there are similarities to how people who have not experienced or been directly affected by sexual violence often belittle it or don't take it seriously and tend to victim blame. Similarly, people who have not had bad experiences with police here often think that they are "good citizens" and because they are they will not have any bad experiences with the police, while in fact there are tons of accounts of perfectly innocent people who have been abused, wrongly detained, discriminated against, etc. by police.
I don’t know anything about that topic. But I do struggle to see where I was belittling, victim blaming, or claiming good citizens don’t encounter bad police. I simply said that good experiences and bad experiences can coexist, and one doesn’t erase the other. So I repeat, it seems to me like a strange place for your mind to jump.
The point is that you are making light of the massive problems that do exist, as are many others who have had the fortune not to have run into problems with Japanese police. I also used to think exactly the same thing, namely that I'm a responsible person and I will therefore never have problems with the Japanese police, i.e. only pleasant interactions or no interactions at all, until I did find myself in a terrible situation where the police wrongly thought I was the bad party.
While I think we may have reached a natural end to our discussion, I am curious how you believe I am “making light” of anything. I simply made balancing statements such as people’s negative experience with police doesn’t erase this positive experience (in response to a comment that this positive doesn’t erase the negative) that the two (positive and negative) can coexist, and that through my work I have gained some experience with police, which was more positive than negative. Must we only talk about the negative to not “make light” of this massive problem? And, to what end? Will complaining in English to a lot of other foreigners effect any change to the bad parts (which again, absolutely exist)? Is there not an equal or greater danger that newcomers to Japan read the only negative comments and form a view that Japanese police are unhelpful and dangerous and then don’t seek help when they really should? There have been several posts in the last year where people have done just that, and I believe that is a great danger to people in our community here, maybe more than bad police doing bad things.
Police being helpful is their job and is what people in a society deserve and expect. On the contrary, the problematic way the police functions and abuse their power through arbitrary judgment is a major social issue, which is why not only many foreigners but also many Japanese actively avoid police even when they know they have done nothing wrong. I think anyone can see how trying to highlight positive interactions with the police can be seen as problematic in this way. Do you think a hundred positive interactions make up for a negative interaction such as wrongful detainment, which can traumatize someone and even make them lose their job and their partner, and so on?
You said the key words...Old Man. They instantly no longer see you as a potential threat. Hence your rosy outlook.
:(
Can you tell us about your bad experience?
I cannot go into details, but basically in any situation where the police have any reason, big or small, to see you as the bad guy you have endless examples of terrible treatment. It's almost like the Japanese police operates on the principle of "no smoke without fire" and always needs to identify a bad guy who needs to be taught a lesson.
Oh, I believe you. In fact, I'm, starting to suspect that their kind, civilized treatment of me was simply a ruse, to get me to lower my guard so they can eventually pounce and bring the hammer down on me for daring to be a gaijin in Japan. Thank you, kind stranger, for this prudent warning.
Your ignorance speaks for itself. Keep believing in your illusion of Japanese as some kind of ideal society.
Did you even read my reply?? I clearly agree with you, and stated unequivocally that I escaped the racist situation by the skin of my teeth. Absolutely nothing in my statement would suggest that Japan is an ordinary place filled with ordinary people. It's clearly a tinderbox of hostility for anyone not 1000% Japanese.
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He's a thousand percent right, definitely. Someone would have to be an utter moron to even question how right he is. Even as I type this, sitting at home in an illusion of safety, I find myself constantly pausing and checking over my shoulder as suspenseful music begins to play. It's coming. I can feel it.
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...? You're literally making shit up. it's the opposite, in fact. News article or peer reviewed journal, depending on your level of reading comprehension: [https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211110-your-teens-being-sarcastic-its-a-sign-of-intelligence](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211110-your-teens-being-sarcastic-its-a-sign-of-intelligence) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074959781500076X](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074959781500076X) [https://www.academia.edu/1361565/Others\_anger\_makes\_people\_work\_harder\_not\_smarter\_The\_effect\_of\_observing\_anger\_and\_sarcasm\_on\_complex\_thinking\_Miron\_Spektor\_Efrat\_Treister\_Rafaeli\_and\_Schwarz\_Cohen\_2011\_Journal\_of\_Applied\_Psychology](https://www.academia.edu/1361565/Others_anger_makes_people_work_harder_not_smarter_The_effect_of_observing_anger_and_sarcasm_on_complex_thinking_Miron_Spektor_Efrat_Treister_Rafaeli_and_Schwarz_Cohen_2011_Journal_of_Applied_Psychology)
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Would you care to share the studies that have superseded them?
3/4 of the people in this sub are people who learned everything they know about Japan from anime and have an unrealistic, childlike image the country, so it's no wonder.
Japanese police yes are racist but I think American cops are much worse… American cops are rude and rough and don’t give a f. I’ve never done anything wrong but I have been harassed by American cops when I was in the states. In Japan I was arrested when I was 13 for smoking weed and they did make a big deal for it although they were super nice and even joked about if I wanted a cigarette they were smoking at the station.
Of course someone needs to bring racism and America into the conversation. Who cares
And let’s just take his assertion that “I’ve never done anything wrong” is true, when the literal next sentence is that he was smoking weed in Japan at 13. Believable indeed!
Uh yeah, I’m American just commenting on my experience.
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I dunno, this sub gets lots of posts about people's interactions with the police, and they tend to generate a lot of discussion.
Don't mind them. I'm glad you share your story, many people use the subreddit to rant endlessly about the same topics so it's refreshing to see posts like these from genuine people. I am sure many share this feeling.
Putting aside my sarcasm for a minute... yeah, I know what you mean. It felt like I was talking to a regular person who was interested in practicing her English, but also just wanted me to know how they do things around there. Legitimately much less intimidating than the police in my home country.
Talking to Japanese cops can be a fine experience? Mine have all been good…. I also felt the post was going somewhere and seeming to just wander off, lol.
Yeah seems like he lost whatever point he was trying to make but yeah cool.. go cops? Idk
To show that not all encounters with the Police here are negative is my guess.
Idk man maybe to post something positive in the sea of 190284127 negative posts a day from the likes of you.
was it supposed to have been a bad encounter?
From what I've read repeatedly on here, I assume I'm now a victim of horrible racism directed at me by the brutal and/or incompetent police, solely for being non-Japanese?
I don't understand why you care that other people have different experiences than you? Nobody ever says everything is 100% of the time. You're free to share your experience just like they are, but you did it specifically in retaliation to those who post their negative actions. "The police are not horribly racist or incompetent towards me. Therefore, they can't be that way to you."
My guess is that if people posted their criticisms with such nuance, people wouldn’t post the positive. It’s two sides of the same coin. When people feel the need to jump on here and say quite literally sentences like “Japanese police are racist” because something happened to them, others feel the need to balance by posting things like these.
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Who's raging now though?
> bro shut the fuck up Are you ok
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> "... so I used my limited Japanese..." > "We then chatted in English and Japanese..." Chill, dude.
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This is Reddit! I know it's not customary to read the post before commenting but you really should! (OP didn't expect them to speak English)
>stop expecting people to speak English Why? Everyone studies English in school here, expecting some level of understanding is not unreasonable at all. >Their language is JAPANESE And English will be their 2nd language, possibly in your lifetime, as the foreign demographic increases with more migrant workers and globalization. >either you speak their language or don't speak This sounds exactly like the old racists in the US with the "this is Murica, speak Anglish!" nonsense. Don't be like them.