Real Police, Fake Police, Dream Police

[Iraira]

[ATTACH]2176[/ATTACH]
Had a strange thing happen yesterday at Shinagawa Station. I had gone to the Immigration Hellhole to get my 1st spouse VISA (Thank you for all the wedding presents), where they gave me a 3 year VISA, which was 2 years more than expected. After entering the station, I was approached by two mid-50's men, in plain clothes who identified themselves as police officers. They produced badges, but did not show any other forms of identification. They asked to see my gaijin card, and after a short inspection of it, one noticed something that had escaped both my and Immigration's attention: the card had expired 4 days before. Seriously, I thought it said "2008", not "2006".
Told them that I had just gotten my new VISA, but it was in my bag. I rather violently ripped into my bag and pulled out my passport, showing them the new VISA, and commented, "You should be the ones to search the bag of a suspect. If I was a terrorist, you both would be dead now."
I informed them that I was on my way to the ward office to take care of my gaijin card, and basically left without them attempting to stop me or really even saying bye.

The whole thing looked very suspicious and I'm wondering if anyone else has had any strange experiences with persons claiming to be the police.

[Greji]

[ATTACH]2176[/ATTACH] They produced badges, but did not show any other forms of identification.

They showed you "badges"? What kind? I will stand corrected, but I am not aware of a badge in use in J-land. The police have always used the mighty "kuropa" as far as I know. Other agencies have their version of the same! Sounds strange indeed!

[kurohinge1]

The last two times I renewed my Sith Lord Licence, I had some trouble with the J-Police . . .

Darth Vader v The J-Police

[Taro Toporific]

.... I was approached by two mid-50's men, in plain clothes who identified themselves as police officers. They produced badges, but did not show any other forms of identification. They asked to see my gaijin card....
The whole thing looked very suspicious and I'm wondering if anyone else has had any strange experiences with persons claiming to be the police.

According to our favorite buddy, Debito, there seems to be a problem with fake police and you should be careful, " to stop con artists and blackmarketeers from running off with your card (like what could have happened to Richard Thieme in, of all places, Sapporo Station)."
Unlike some fruitcakes, Richard Thieme is just a regular long-term gaijin and he wrote the folowing:

Re: INSTANT CHECKPOINTS (3): The Letter of The Law

Richard Thieme
Thu, 17 Dec 1998 04:24:54 -0500

...on asking [cops] for their ID. Yes you should demand
this. Agreeing to go to the police office is one thing. You should
however, be very careful about agreeing to go to off the road where no
one is looking. Particularly if you are dealing with someone in plain
clothes. He may not be a cop. I half-heard something on the radio about
people asking for identification on the grounds that they are police,
memorizing enough information, and then taking out credit cards, in that
person's name.

I also had a rather puzzling experience in Sapporo Station this spring.

I was traveling with my father and we had changed destinations so that I
suddenly needed to find a hotel that night. I was running in and out
between the bookstore in the station, the privy (won't go into the
details of what I ate the night before) and the telephones, and I looked
like a bum so I would not have been surprised if I seemed suspicious.
Someone walked up and demanded my passport. I told him I didn't have it.
Then he asked me for my card. I said what kind of card? He didn't seem
to know the English for this. We went around on this for a while before
he showed me his paper ID (these ID's by the way are not photo ID's). I
confess I didn't look at it very closely because I was pressed for time.
I showed him the thing. He looked at it and gave it back to me.

Here is the ringer. The front of my card has an expired visa date on it.
He did not look at the back. This did not occur to me until after we
parted. I had half a mind to track the guy down and haul him into the
police box myself to find out if he was for real. But then I would have
had to find my father again, I had a train to catch, etc., etc.

I haven't had any puzzling bills yet, but I kind of wonder what was
going on.


Regards,

Richard Thieme

(Oh the last thing, of course, is it is highly unlikely that a real
police officer will not show you his identification, unless you are
already in the middle of a bar fight. If he doesn't you should be very
suspicious).

Also:
JAPAN'S POLICE TARGETING FOREIGNERS FOR SPOT IDENTITY CHECKS