The unusual move by the embassy of Tokyo's only formal ally came after Japan closed its borders to new entries by foreigners amid concern over the omicron variant, just weeks after beginning a cautious reopening. The closure was backed by almost 90% of respondents to a media poll over the weekend. The alert posted on the Twitter account of the American Citizen Services section of the embassy warned that U.S. citizens should carry proof of their immigration status and notify their consulate if detained. The alert added that several foreigners "were detained, questioned, and searched." Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno dismissed the concerns and said at a news briefing that police questioning in the country is not based on nationality or race.
Today, in a statement on its Twitter site the US embassy warned of racial profiling by the Japanese police.
U.S. Embassy warns of suspected racial profiling by Japan police
The alert warned that U.S. citizens should carry proof of their immigration status and notify their consulate if detained.www.japantimes.co.jp
Are they suspicious of foreigners (especially from the us) or something? Like...I don't see this as new. The forum has a number of posts about foreigners being targeted by Japanese police, some people repeatedly by the same police officers if I remember correctly.
I was questioned at the airport once, while sitting and waiting in the departure area for my flight back to the US. I had to show them my passport to prove that I was allowed to be in the country. Seemed like a silly thing to do when a person is waiting for their international departure to start boarding.
It's probably not just people from the US - How would a police officer tell the difference between an American and someone from another country just by looking? However, the US embassy has so far been the only embassy to give such a warning.Are they suspicious of foreigners (especially from the us) or something? Like...something's not clicking
I don't see this as new. The forum has a number of posts about foreigners being targeted by Japanese police, some people repeatedly by the same police officers if I remember correctly.
I was questioned at the airport once, while sitting and waiting in the departure area for my flight back to the US. I had to show them my passport to prove that I was allowed to be in the country. Seemed like a silly thing to do when a person is waiting for their international departure to start boarding.
This does follow a general trend that Japanese institutions do not deal with anything foreign well, and it seems to be getting worse. Yesterday I went to the post office to send a Christmas card and a furoshiki cloth to my 14-year-old goddaughter in Spain. It took about 15 mins to fill in both electronic and paper forms and answer verbal questions about the contents. It sapped the joy out of the nice gesture of sending a Christmas present to a kid abroad.
Are they suspicious of foreigners (especially from the us) or something? Like...something's not clicking
"We have good reasons to believe that police officers frequently racially profile people of foreign origin," Junko Hayashi said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. "We need more solid data regarding this issue." The survey will begin Jan. 11. [...] Earlier this month, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said on its official Twitter account that it had received reports of "suspected racial profiling incidents" with several foreigners "detained, questioned, and searched" by the police. The message advised U.S. citizens to carry proof of immigration status and request consular notification if detained. Asked about the message, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference Dec. 6 that Japanese police approach suspicious people in accordance with the law, such as when they have reasonable grounds to suspect someone has committed a crime, and that questioning is not carried out based on race or nationality. Hayashi said the association decided to take action since "the chief Cabinet secretary does not seem willing to investigate."
That really depends on what qualifies as "reasonable grounds" for them. For all we know being a foreigner may be "reasonable grounds" as far as they are concerned.Where the line is drawn for me above is to detain and search them without a good cause, I understand police can hold one for quite a while without a charge (unlike in the US) so I am glad to see the above text on "reasonable grounds to suspect someone has commited a crime".
They can always make up an excuse. Like you "fit the description" of somebody they are looking for etc.OK. I just remember being coached years ago to always carry it for that reason, I didn't realize they had to have good cause to ID while walking while foreign. Due to the coaching I had always thought it was legal, seems that is not the case.
The written advisory read that when choosing who to stop and question, police officers "should not base their decisions solely on how they look, such as appearance and clothing." When asked at a press conference about the U.S. Embassy's tweet on the day it was posted, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said police questioning is not carried out based on race or nationality, and officers approach suspicious people in accordance with the law. Conversely, the preliminary results of a Tokyo Bar Association survey of police treatment of people with foreign roots, released earlier this year, showed that 62.9 percent of the 2,094 respondents reported being questioned by police in the preceding five years.
The police have failed to police themselves so they need oversight. At least with all the bodycams now they are not getting away with immoral and illegal behavior as much.Here in the US when non-police tell the police how to do their job , it usually doesn't end well. When police management is controlled by kissing politician's butts to get needed finances , it also can go downhill fast. Hopefully this new policy will work out for the better.
As a result, the agency recognized two racial profiling incidents each in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, one case in Osaka and one in Miyagi. In one case, a police officer asked a person's nationality using rude expressions. In another case, a police officer told a person to show a residence card just because the name of the person looked like a foreign name. Also in another case, an officer questioned a person with hair braids, saying that in the past a fashionable person had used illegal drugs. The national police say none of these police officers had discriminatory intent.