Police I.D. Checks

[DoctorP]

So you are saying that in Japan people aren't really free to walk in tshirt or bike around the neighbourhood during regular working hours without fearing to be arrested. That's not what I would call a free society. In the Benelux, you would need to provoke a policeman to get any reaction at all. People just don't get stopped and checked for ID for no reason if they did not cause an accident or commit a crime/offence. I cannot accept being stopped and interrogated on my work, where I live, where I am going, asked for my ID, etc. for no reason. It sounds Nazi or Communist, but in any way not like a free society.

Sounds like it is very good that you don't live in Japan!

 

[GodEmperorLeto]

That is also why I left Japan, because eventhough I learnt Japanese and did my best from the beginning to speak Japanese, even once I became fluent so many (older) Japanese would ignore me or say "No English !" and make gestures. That was the height of rudeness, and like in the opposite situation also bordering on racist hatred, as they just assumed that someone who didn't loook Japanese couldn't possibly speak Japanese.

Out of curiosity, did you ever call them out on their rude behavior? Did you ever confront them on it? I have a few friends who have been to Japan who are fluent (one is getting his Ph.D. in the language and literature), and they had stories like that, but they always ended with the gaijin confronting the offensive party. Things like, "I heard Japan was a land of polite people; apparently I was wrong" may prove effective.

However, I can't speak from personal experience in Japan, because I haven't gone there yet.

It seems, Maciamo, given many of your posts on older threads, that you had a very difficult (but not necessarily bad) experience in Japan. Your journey seemed to be more frustrating and offensive than many others'.

Anyway, you've provided a great deal of insight.

 

[pipokun]

Hope the original poster keeps posting here, not disappear.

 

[GaijinPunch]

Sounds like it is very good that you don't live in Japan!

Indeed. I don't see why people b!tch and moan about a foreign country and choose to live their. If you don't like it, leave! There are plenty of other places in the world. It is indeed a free country, and by you coming and going, have demonstrated it as such.

I think the random ID checks are a bit over the top, but it's quite tolerable. Honestly, the only two times it happened to me was the day of election (even my wife told me I'd probably stopped in Shibuya) and the other was late one night, in Shibuya, in the same interscection. FYI - this i where the Iranians selling drugs were one day plentiful. That seems like "old times" now.

 

[Mike Cash]

I take it no one is interested in venturing a guess at the two questions I posed above:

Anyone care to guess how many times a Japanese cop has asked me for any I.D. other than my driver's license?

Anyone care to guess how many times a Japanese cop has remarked on the fact that I spoke Japanese to them? Or how many times they remarked on my being a foreigner at all?

 

[Hachiro]

I take it no one is interested in venturing a guess at the two questions I posed above:

Anyone care to guess how many times a Japanese cop has asked me for any I.D. other than my driver's license?

Anyone care to guess how many times a Japanese cop has remarked on the fact that I spoke Japanese to them? Or how many times they remarked on my being a foreigner at all?



I will venture a guess with an answer of; probably the same number of times that I have.

 

[Maciamo]

Indeed. I don't see why people b!tch and moan about a foreign country and choose to live their. If you don't like it, leave! There are plenty of other places in the world.

And do you know any places which is perfect ? If I were to follow your advice, there would be no place for me to live, as I would always find plenty of things to complain about. The idea is to find the most liveable country among all those imperfections. Personally, being harassed by the police so often is just untolerable. Maybe I was unlucky, or it's the area in which I lived, or my schedule that coincided with ID check times... Anyway, I feel much better since I have left Japan.

 

[gaijinalways]

I personally as a long term resident haven't felt too bothered by it, having had my id checked perhaps twice in 9 years.

But I am a bit confused when people talk about foreign residents and say this isn't our home. What do you think I have been doing for 9 years, visiting?! Now if they were doing the ID checks equally, yeah, that would be fine, but they're not. Funny, 99% of the crimes in Japan are by Japanese. Terrorism, home grown so far (sarin attack, 1995, hijacked plane, 1970).

 

[Glenn]

I take it no one is interested in venturing a guess at the two questions I posed above:

0

0

How did I do?

 

[Hachiro]

0

0

How did I do?

Well that is the answer for mine anyway

 

[Mike Cash]

The answer is 1 and 0.

The one and only time a cop asked to see my gaijin card was so long ago and so inconsequential that I don't even have a very clear recollection of it. I wouldn't even swear that it happened at all, my recollection of it is so vague.

I seem to recall that it was at a police box somewhere in the Tama region sometime around 1992 or 1993, near a brewery I was going to make a delivery to in the burbs of Tokyo. I stopped in to ask directions in the wee hours of the morning. One of the cops, seemingly out of sheer boredom and curiosity, asked to see it.....I think.

 

[Maciamo]

But I am a bit confused when people talk about foreign residents and say this isn't our home. What do you think I have been doing for 9 years, visiting?! Now if they were doing the ID checks equally, yeah, that would be fine, but they're not. Funny, 99% of the crimes in Japan are by Japanese. Terrorism, home grown so far (sarin attack, 1995, hijacked plane, 1970).

Let's just ignore those who say that foreign residents can't give their opinion about how things should be or could be improved in Japan, because it's not their country. Most of the time such people have never even left their country, or at least never lived anywhere else.

I wrote the article Foreign Criminality in Japan almost only because I was fed up of hearing Japanese people tell me that foreigners were checked more often because they caused more crimes than the Japanese. What do they know about foreign crime ? Have they lived in Belgium or France ? Here the government prohibits the publication of crime stats by nationality to prevent the fast-growing extreme right to burst out of control. Newspapers can't tell the nationality or family name of criminals anymore, but often just the first name is enough (you know that when it's Mohammed or Rashid they are not natives).

 

[ArmandV]

And do you know any places which is perfect ? If I were to follow your advice, there would be no place for me to live, as I would always find plenty of things to complain about. The idea is to find the most liveable country among all those imperfections. Personally, being harassed by the police so often is just untolerable. Maybe I was unlucky, or it's the area in which I lived, or my schedule that coincided with ID check times... Anyway, I feel much better since I have left Japan.

Maybe you looked like a criminal-type to them. It could be the attitude you projected while walking the streets? Some people just seem to draw attention. You could be one of those.

 

[kkkktttt]

Funny, 99% of the crimes in Japan are by Japanese. Terrorism, home grown so far (sarin attack, 1995, hijacked plane, 1970).

こういう意見は、警察による職務質問に不満を抱く外国人の間でよく聞かれるのですが、
地下鉄サリン事件を起こしたオウム教団（現アーレフ）も、中核派や革マル派などのテロ集団も警察によって常時監視されています。
「ビラ配り」などでマンションに入ったところを「住居不法侵入」容疑で逮捕される事もあります。
したがって、これらの集団があたかも犯罪予備軍として疑いの目をかけられていないかのような表現は事実に反します。
常に公安警察によって監視されているのですから、IDチェックどころの話ではありません。

 

[Maciamo]

Maybe you looked like a criminal-type to them. It could be the attitude you projected while walking the streets? Some people just seem to draw attention. You could be one of those.

I sincerely believe that if I look like a criminal, every man does ! I think I rather look like someone who wouldn't protest when bullied by the police. Remember what has been said many times on this forum about the Japanese police; they rarely interfere with yakuza and other dangerous-looking people, but once an innocent-looking foreigner (who they suppose can't speak Japanese and doesn't law Japanese law) shows up they jump on him/her ! I guess that's why people like Mike Cash don't get stopped and asked for ID or bothered for nothing - they are too afraid !

 

[ArmandV]

Maciamo: Public Enemy No. 1?

I sincerely believe that if I look like a criminal, every man does ! I think I rather look like someone who wouldn't protest when bullied by the police. Remember what has been said many times on this forum about the Japanese police; they rarely interfere with yakuza and other dangerous-looking people, but once an innocent-looking foreigner (who they suppose can't speak Japanese and doesn't law Japanese law) shows up they jump on him/her ! I guess that's why people like Mike Cash don't get stopped and asked for ID or bothered for nothing - they are too afraid !

Are you saying that Mike Cash is "dangerous-looking?"

Are you saying you are "innocent-looking?" (A "Walter Mitty" type?)

Maybe we should have both of you post your "mug shots" and have the members vote who is most-likely to be hassled by the police. This should be fun. Game?

 

[Mike Cash]

I look like probable cause incarnate. If I were a cop, I'd be rousting me all the time.

 

[jieshi]

The only time I was ever stopped by police and asked for my ID was when I was riding home from school one night a week after a big robbery had happened and I just missed witnessing it. The police were questioning anyone who came along the street at that time asking if they had witnessed the robbery the week before (it was serious around $5000 was stolen and the attacked employee was sent to hospital for a few days)

 

[Ewok85]

I look like probable cause incarnate. If I were a cop, I'd be rousting me all the time.

They probably have you followed, no need for checks!