One foreigner's experience in a Japanese jail
Metropolis
TOKYO ― Paul Green spent three weeks in a Shinjuku lock-up. Here is an account of his experience.
Day 1: Blood and Processing
After 17 hours of interrogation, I had an arrest warrant slapped down on the dirty table in front of me, as if the cop was happy to finally have found his serial killer.
The warrant said “for not cooperating with the police and hitting a man with a bottle.” I was definitely guilty of not cooperating with the police, but as the obviously far-from-meticulous detective team would later find out by video, not guilty of hitting some guy with a bottle. My attack on the “victim” had been fired by his drunken physical taunts and led to injuries mimicking those of a bottle to the brow. He himself was so drunk and shaken up that he said he wasn’t sure what happened.
The room, now packed with eight police of varying rank and each sporting different attire, heated up when the lead detective walked in to ask about my now deformed hand. The metacarpal had snapped on the third punch to the Goliath-sized “victim” I had taken down. It was now swollen and becoming near vestigial.
I was ushered to the elevator in my ropes and handcuffs under the eyes of all those on the afternoon shift, keeping my nose up, not bothering to be embarrassed....more...
