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Today, I came across this article of a woman in Nagoya suing the government over keeping her DNA data after the police investigation had ended. It didn't sound like an unreasonable request. Here's the article:
I assumed she must have been involved in a murder case or some other heinous crime until I read this:
Lucky Japan: as the police are running out of crimes, over-policing certain aspects of Japanese society seems to become the rule.
While the police are overzealous in checking bike registrations and investigating petty crime, other areas receive less attention:
Personally, I have never had any issues with the police. I haven't been checked once in 15 years of cycling. But I understand now how they can afford to place a police officer in front of the elementary school in our neighbourhood every day since that stabbing three weeks ago.
The final statement from the article linked above:
Woman sues Japanese gov't for DNA data kept even after end of probe
A woman in her 50s sued the Japanese government Thursday, demanding the state delete her DNA data collected by police as she claimed it is unconstitutional to store such personal data after the end of an investigation. In the suit filed with the Nagoya District Court, the woman sought 1.5…
japantoday.com
I assumed she must have been involved in a murder case or some other heinous crime until I read this:
According to the suit, the woman's fingerprints and DNA were collected by the Aichi prefectural police in August 2014 after she was questioned the previous month by the police on suspicion of putting a flyer on a utility pole seeking information about her missing dog.
Lucky Japan: as the police are running out of crimes, over-policing certain aspects of Japanese society seems to become the rule.
Japan’s crime problem? Too many police, not enough criminals
Tokyo Letter: As they run out of things to do, officers are becoming more inventive
www.irishtimes.com
In practice, this means lots of police attention. Petty drugs offences are treated with forensic rigour. Police have arrested athletes, rock stars and university students for smoking pot. One woman recalls five officers crowding into her cramped apartment after she reported her knickers being swiped from a clothesline.
As they run out of things to do, however, police are becoming more inventive about what constitutes a crime, says Kanako Takayama, a professor of criminal law at Kyoto University. In one recent case, she says, they arrested a group of people who had shared the fees for a rented car because they judged it was an illegal taxi.
Critics who fret about over-enthusiastic police cite a week-long stakeout in 2016, in Kyushu, southwest Japan. Five officers watched over a case of beer in an unlocked car outside a supermarket in Kagoshima, scene of a series of car robberies, before pouncing on the hapless middle-aged man who eventually helped himself.
While the police are overzealous in checking bike registrations and investigating petty crime, other areas receive less attention:
However, even as the police amuse themselves by figuring out ways to catch the town drunk or harass teenage cyclists, they continue to studiously ignore a whole set of serious crimes that slide by under the radar in "safe" Japan. The same police who jump into action at the hint of a possibly-stolen bicycle are routinely indolent and useless in the face of reports of sexual assault or domestic violence.
The Myth of Japan’s Bored Police – Tokyo Review
Japan's crime rate being so low that police are bored has become a popular meme; in reality, the police often ignore sexual crimes and domestic violence.
www.tokyoreview.net
Personally, I have never had any issues with the police. I haven't been checked once in 15 years of cycling. But I understand now how they can afford to place a police officer in front of the elementary school in our neighbourhood every day since that stabbing three weeks ago.
The final statement from the article linked above:
The Japanese police are by no means all terrible; in many regards, they do a superb job. They excel at maintaining public order in busy places, at handling drunks and breaking up fights without anyone getting hurt, and generally at the day-to-day "uniformed policeman on the beat" tasks of their role. The idea that they have no work to do due to a low crime rate, however, is simply wrong at best, and mendacious at worst. There is plenty of crime in Japan; but a crime against women or children, a crime within families or relationships, is a crime that the police don't want to investigate or deal with, and their attitude has actively dissuaded victims from seeking their assistance. Protecting Japan's women and children from these crimes should take priority over staking out cases of beer.