Akibahara:I wonder how violation of foriegn rights can be linked to this situation?

So the police do a nation wide check of store selling double bladed knives and found that only 1/3 had been asking for proof of ID when purchasing. The story.
{ http://www2.asahi.com/special2/080609/TKY200808210142.html }
So I find an article on a guy being questioned for an hour for having a swiss army knife , the story.
{ http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4893 }
And now there are already restrictions being placed on selling these types of knives. The story.
{ http://www2.asahi.com/special2/080609/TKY200807070371.html?ref=reca }
I just find this so similar to the Japanese police targeting foriegners for past crimes commited by other foriegners, but yet the foriegn community cries fowl because they are being unfairly treated and profiled. Does it strike anyone that it is a coincidence that the police are taking the same approch here as they are with foriegn crime? Or is it that only foriegners have this so called tunnel vision and ignore anything else that goes on in Japan?

FrustratedDave said:

I just find this so similar to the Japanese police targeting foriegners for past crimes commited by other foriegners

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How so? The story doesn't say whether the man was foreign or not, and since it doesn't say, one has to assume he was Japanese. VERY hard to tell from the mosaic block in the photos. How do you know they were only checking Japanese, if that is the case? The "report" doesn't say anything about the reason the cops stopped the guy, either. "Routine inspection", or was he acting suspiciously? Unclear.

Or are you saying that since a Japanese wreaked havoc in Akihabara with a knife that they are justified in searching every Japanese person's bag, and that foreigners are the only ones who cry fowl over treatment like that? Where is the connection?

Does it strike anyone that it is a coincidence that the police are taking the same approch here as they are with foriegn crime?

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#1, shouldn't this be in the foreign crime thread?

#2, what "same approach" is being conducted that seems so odd to you?

Glenski said:

How so? The story doesn't say whether the man was foreign or not, and since it doesn't say, one has to assume he was Japanese. VERY hard to tell from the mosaic block in the photos. How do you know they were only checking Japanese, if that is the case?

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And with journalism like that article if it were indeed a forienger it would have been another racist against foriegners article, so we will have to assume the person was Japanese.

Glenski said:

Or are you saying that since a Japanese wreaked havoc in Akihabara with a knife that they are justified in searching every Japanese person's bag, and that foreigners are the only ones who cry fowl over treatment like that? Where is the connection?

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Thanks for bringing this up. The point is that a lot of people are complaining (on this site and elsewhere) that foriegners are being treated unfairly here in Japan. But yet here is a case where the same thing happens to Japanese, where is this so called unfair treatment I keep hearing about? The police have now released numerous statements and are mounting a huge campaign against these survival knives due to a few peoples disregard for human life (and these few against a population of 127,433,494 ) . And watch for the minorites who will come out and call for a ban on these knives, Do you see the similarities or not? As for your question on whether every Japanese should be searched or not and is it only foreingers that cry fowl? I have not really thought about whether across the board searches are wrong or not. And yes , foriengers are crying fowl by being targeted and singled out when in othet instances the Japanese are supjected to the same treatment. So where is the discrimination everyone keeps talking about? Horses for corses, foriegners have a additional rules and laws to abide by, it is as simple as that.

Glenski said:

#1, shouldn't this be in the foreign crime thread?

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Sigh....

Glenski said:

#2, what "same approach" is being conducted that seems so odd to you?

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Never said that, or did I imply it either. I did say that "does it strike anyone that it is a coincidence that the police are taking the same approch here as they are with foriegn crime?" But I think I see what you are trying to say, so what I meant was that it seems odd that foriegners seem to think that it only happens to them.

Here is what a Japanese site had to say,

http://guideline.livedoor.biz/archives/51086165.html

So they were conducting 職務質問. To me the police are not unfairly discriminating aginst foriegners when asking for ID with accounts like this amoung the general Japanese population. People need to actually live here, not just in their little foriegn bubble and read their foriegn media and realise that they are not the only ones who recieve this treatment. I am not commenting on whether 職務質問 is right or wrong , only on this so called discrimination only against foriegners eg , being stopped in the street while riding your bike.

Japanese people are just as annoyed at being stopped for no reason as non-Japanese are.


P.S. This topic's a joke.

orochi said:

Japanese people are just as annoyed at being stopped for no reason as non-Japanese are.


P.S. This topic's a joke.

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Exactly, so why the discussions about foriegners only being targeted when the Japanese are subjected to the same treatment? Your previous comments in other threads have all just been nullified with this statement, thankyou.

As for the "This topic's a joke" comment. I think you are one of the people who need to get out of you gaijin bubble and realise what country you are residing in. And the topic is not about the unfairness of being stopped by the 職務質問 law, but the fact that a lot of people (foriegners) are crying racism and that their rights are violated when Japanese have to deal with the same treatment
You just won't get it will you?

Exactly, so why the discussions about foriegners only being targeted when the Japanese are subjected to the same treatment?

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Can you link me to where I said that only foreigners are targeted?

I think you are one of the people who need to get out of you gaijin bubble and realise what country you are residing in.

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You're not my father. You don't know anything about me.

You just won't get it will you?

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I don't think you get it. You're paranoid and have obvious grudges against several other posters.

orochi said:

Can you link me to where I said that only foreigners are targeted?

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Bad choice of words, maybe I should have said why the discussions about discrimination against foriengers? Have look at this thread again, the whole way through it you were advocating that foriegners are being unfairly treated. Is that a safe assumption or not?
What ARE your legal rights in Japan as a foreigner?

orochi said:

You're not my father. You don't know anything about me.

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I don't need to be your father to reallize that you are showing very little experience of living Japan or you are just blinded by you own beliefs and do not want to face the fact that things are done differently here then from where ever you are originally from.

orochi said:

I don't think you get it. You're paranoid and have obvious grudges against several other posters.

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Paranoid, LOL, that is a first. What am I paraniod of? LOL And don't start pointing fingers when it was you who elected to post in this thread and call it a joke. Unfortunately for you my point is very valid and it is another peice of evidence that proves that this is the way Japan handles its crime and that foriegners are not just singled out purely for racial reasons. Whether the approch is right or wrong, I have no oppinion on that in this thread.

Dave: if I am understanding the situation correctly, it seems like you are bringing up a case of unnecessary checking. The situations that people on this site seem to be protesting against are cases of unfair checking (targeting a specific group because of specious reasoning about individuals within that group). The first wastes time, while the second is degrading and in some cases even illegal--that's the difference.

Obviously some people new to Japan who have come over hearing rumors about overzealous cops will ignorantly label unnecessary checks as unfair checks--but that certainly has not been happening by most of the posters on this site.

Charles Barkley said:

Dave: if I am understanding the situation correctly, it seems like you are bringing up a case of unnecessary checking. The situations that people on this site seem to be protesting against are cases of unfair checking (targeting a specific group because of specious reasoning about individuals within that group). The first wastes time, while the second is degrading and in some cases even illegal--that's the difference.
Obviously some people new to Japan who have come over hearing rumors about overzealous cops will ignorantly label unnecessary checks as unfair checks--but that certainly has not been happening by most of the posters on this site.

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Correct Charles, and I see this case in Akibahara as being similar if not the same as what people here are protesting about. There have been posts of foriegners being detained for hours over unregistered bikes ect and so forth. This guy had a pocket knife and was questioned for hours. (IMO he was not very smart for taking a knife to such a sensitive place in the first place) It is the same scenario of police targeting a place or group of people. As for profiling, it happens everywhere and as I have said before the police here react on what the minority has done previously (In a different thread I said the dumbass's before us have ruined it for the people who do the right thing).

Dave said:

Have look at this thread again, the whole way through it you were advocating that foriegners are being unfairly treated. Is that a safe assumption or not?

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There were parties in that thread who were of the opinion that foreigners are being unfairly treated. Just because Japanese nationals are being treated unfairly as well doesn't change the situation for foreigners, though.

orochi said:

There were parties in that thread who were of the opinion that foreigners are being unfairly treated. Just because Japanese nationals are being treated unfairly as well doesn't change the situation for foreigners, though.

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Of corse, it does not change the situation for foriengers,and neither does it change for Japanese nationals. But a lot of foriengers are quick to point and say they are being discriminated against and that was a lot of the sentiments of a lot of people in that particular thread. The point is there is not the discrimination that is widely believed and that the way the most police handle foriegners is the same as a Japanese national. We as foriengers have additional rules to abid by , like keeping visas up to date so it is only natural that police will do what they are paid to do and police this. People need to realise that fact.

The point is there is not the discrimination that is widely believed and that the way the most police handle foriegners is the same as a Japanese national.

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You have proven nothing.

People need to realise that fact.

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The police need to follow the law, too.

orochi said:

You have proven nothing.

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Really? I just proved that police give the same treatment to Japanese nationals as foriegn nationals. What more do you want? Your arguments are frivolous due to you lack of understanding of Japan. Did you even read the articles? Sounds to me like you didn't (not the English one)

BTW, I would love to hear your reasons as to why I have proven nothing?

orochi said:

The police need to follow the law, too.

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And they are following the law 職務質問 is part of the law or were you not aware of that? Like I said before, you just don't get it.