Arrest in Japan: The Rough Guide

[JpnBshr]

[ttjereth]

I doubt there are many people here unfamiliar with Debito and his site

[Takechanpoo]

[Visitor K]

Japan is not about justice, it is about bustice.

bustice motherfucker, bustice!

[blackcat]

From the same site regarding the treatment of FG factory workers

"In December, a Chinese woman trainee in her thirties filed a civil suit against the host organization that brought her to Japan and its representative. The woman alleged she was raped many times by the head of the host organization, who had a key to her dormitory room. The organization fully admitted the allegations and settled out of court in February."

So if you are Japanese and commit serious crimes against non Japanese which I am sure are more common the vice versa you can get of scott free!!

why am I not surprised.

[Taro Toporific]

Japan is not about justice, it is about bustice.

The funniest/wisest quip I have learned is that Japan's "defense" lawyers as best thought of as only "sentencing negotiators" (most have never had an acquittal for their entire career).

[Mock Cockpit]

Must say, hasn't really been my experience with Japanese cops, for the most part they've been OK when I've had to deal with them. *Shrugs*

[ttjereth]

Must say, hasn't really been my experience with Japanese cops, for the most part they've been OK when I've had to deal with them. *Shrugs*

I was kept in a police station for 8 hours of questioning after saving a train conductor from some lunatic who attacked him with a hammer.

[AssKissinger]

Must say, hasn't really been my experience with Japanese cops, for the most part they've been OK when I've had to deal with them. *Shrugs*

I have a positive impression of the JFUZZ as well. Never had a problem; raised quite a bit of hell too

[Mock Cockpit]

I was kept in a police station for 8 hours of questioning after saving a train conductor from some lunatic who attacked him with a hammer.

A while back I was walking with my friend downtown after a few drinks, was about 5 in the morning. We saw a young guy passed out actually on the road but near the kerb. He was a very, very nasty colour. I looked at my friend and he said "that guy's dead", I thought so too. Went over and gave him a bit of a slap and checked for a pulse, got him up between us and walked around until some signs of life had been established. At this point a cop car was coming so I waved them down and explained the situation to this cop. He asked our name and address (didn't have our gaijin cards- he didn't care), thanked us for what we had done, bundled ths guy in the back of the police car and were off.
If I had followed the advice in the OP I would have just left this guy lying in the gutter. I couldn't do that even if it meant I might have been taken down to the koban for a while.

That being said I don't doubt that a lot of people, Japanese and gaijin alike, have a lot of bad experiences with the police

[Charles]

That being said I don't doubt that a lot of people, Japanese and gaijin alike, have a lot of bad experiences with the police

Only the guilty need fear The Law.

No-one is innocent.

[ttjereth]

A while back I was walking with my friend downtown after a few drinks, was about 5 in the morning. We saw a young guy passed out actually on the road but near the kerb. He was a very, very nasty colour. I looked at my friend and he said "that guy's dead", I thought so too. Went over and gave him a bit of a slap and checked for a pulse, got him up between us and walked around until some signs of life had been established. At this point a cop car was coming so I waved them down and explained the situation to this cop. He asked our name and address (didn't have our gaijin cards- he didn't care), thanked us for what we had done, bundled ths guy in the back of the police car and were off.
If I had followed the advice in the OP I would have just left this guy lying in the gutter. I couldn't do that even if it meant I might have been taken down to the koban for a while.

That being said I don't doubt that a lot of people, Japanese and gaijin alike, have a lot of bad experiences with the police

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not suggesting people avoid doing the right thing for fear of the police, just saying the police aren't always the nice friendly fellows they show on the TV dramas. A lot of them think that if a crime has occurred where a gaijin is somehow involved, the crime must be in some way, shape or form the fault of the gaijin, and only even begin to consider the gaijin may be the victim, or even unwillingly caught up as a third party after exhausting every possible avenue of investigation along the "gaijin=criminal" path.

It happens back home as well, but at least back home you have the right to speak to a lawyer (or anybody for that matter, I wasn't allowed a phone call or anything for the first 5 hours I was in the police station, they wouldn't even let me go and wash the conductors blood off my hands), and there is at least some method of recourse in the event you are falsely accused/arrested.

[blackcat]

I had a student that was a J cop and he told me that they always targeted Brazilian Chinese gangs in Ameri Muira Osaka, they were an easy arrest and everyone would believe the cops over the FGS, they were more scared on the African "gangs" tho...

I asked about the bosozoku...no way they avoided them and were scared of them.
thats from the horses mouth.

[kusai Jijii]

I was kept in a police station for 8 hours of questioning after saving a train conductor from some lunatic who attacked him with a hammer.

I spent about 3 hours in a koban for 'questioning' after handing in a wallet I found on the street (with all cash and credit cards still in it!).
Wont be doing that again...

[kusai Jijii]

Oh, and another thing, I'm not sure its a J cop thing as such, I am of the opinion that cops are total CUNTS the world over.

[Iraira]

I spent about 3 hours in a koban for 'questioning' after handing in a wallet I found on the street (with all cash and credit cards still in it!).
Wont be doing that again...

Don't feel so bad, gf just told me that she got "questioned" for at least 30 minutes by the koban pigs when she turned in a wallet that she found at the station...yes...she's a J-national and when asked by her studly boyfriend would she go to the koban in her hood again if she found a wallet, she answered, "there's a mailbox near the station."
Shower time.

[Visitor K]

hell, my old roommate (japanese) got stuck at the station answering questions and making statments for over six hours when he found a fourteen year old kid breaking into our house and called the cops.
to be sure, the japanese cops are intollerant and beureaucratically slow, but they are fucking pussy-cats compared to their handle-bar having, copenhagen chewing, shotgun toting american counterparts (or the truck loads of military patrols that some countries adopt as their police force).

[Charles]

..to be sure, the japanese cops are intollerant and beureaucratically slow, but they are fucking pussy-cats compared to their handle-bar having, copenhagen chewing, shotgun toting american counterparts (or the truck loads of military patrols that some countries adopt as their police force).

I saw your location is listed as Mexico, you remind me of an old quip I heard in a travelogue. It said that Mexico doesn't have enough money for patrol cars, so instead, they have lots of checkpoints manned with machine-gun toting cops. So there are no high speed chases in Mexico, just well-ventilated cars coasting to a stop.

[Visitor K]

I saw your location is listed as Mexico, you remind me of an old quip I heard in a travelogue. It said that Mexico doesn't have enough money for patrol cars, so instead, they have lots of checkpoints manned with machine-gun toting cops. So there are no high speed chases in Mexico, just well-ventilated cars coasting to a stop.

yah, thats about right.. the police force down here is so corrupt that the federal government uses the military force on the highways and around the cities with the false assumption that the federal military is not corrupt. whenever you take a long distance bus ride down here there are numerous check-points where heavily armed federal military guys get on and search through for drugs or whatever else.. ive never seen them use their guns, but they sure dont seem like they would have a problem with it.

even though japan's law enforcement is rather meek when compared to other countries, i can see the guy/gal's reason for writing this report, as in mexico and other third world countries, safety is a huge concern for travelers, and police corruption is usually a given.. but in japan, where people are told that it is extremely safe, there is still a threat of being railroaded by the legal system, and people should be aware of that before moving there.

oh, and FUCK THE POLICE.

[ttjereth]

Oh, and another thing, I'm not sure its a J cop thing as such, I am of the opinion that cops are total CUNTS the world over.

There are definitely dickhead cops everywhere on the planet where there are cops, but back home there are at least ways to get around or get back for false imprisonment and such. The idea of spending 8 years in jail for a crime you haven't been convicted of (like the recent thread about the parents jailed for their son's death) is pretty much unthinkable.

When I was about 16 I saw a cop mace a kid who lived across the street from me, same age, and then rake his face back and forth across a chain link fence, so I'm not under the impression that cops are all nice heroes waiting to save us from the bad guys, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't like being treated like a criminal for doing something good.

[Catoneinutica]

Debito is doing a good job aggregating stories about the slipping mask of Japan being a country governed by the rule of law (as opposed to a threadbare East German-style Stasi state). He's got a post today about an extraordinary case of J-police dickheadedness in Japan, one that's gotten scant press coverage (I certainly hadn't heard about it):

http://www.debito.org/index.php/?p=1633

He quotes a weekly magazine saying that the pinheaded former Cheif of the Saitama Police, Hiroshi Nishimura, who helped botch the the first murder investigation of the serial Filipina killer back in 2000, is now the president of the biggest security company in western Japan. I'd like to send him a Filipina body part (or, failing that, something equally grisly; a horse's head, perhaps?).

-catone
-before choosing a coin locker at Hamamatsucho Station, make sure it isn't leaking blood

[Ketou]

Ah the Japanese legal system....
As debito says "innocent until proven foreign".

[Takechanpoo]

If stupid gaijin dudes are discriminated by trivial things, these dudes always try to generalize it and apply to all Japanese. For example, watching Uyoku car driving around the whole town one Sunday, these dudes always think "Oh dear, Japanese nationals are willing to support these extremists!!! What a racist country!!!", despite almost all of Japanese regarding "Uyoku" dudes as madness or fake. moron

[Tommybar]

During a motorcycle rodeo with street bikes and a group of police bikers, I asked the cops why they had become police officers i.e. protect the public or to ensure laws are abided by, they replied 'to bust people'.

[Greji]

If stupid gaijin dudes are discriminated by trivial things, these dudes always try to generalize it and apply to all Japanese.

You are right to a degree here Take, but I think trivial is a bad choice of adjectives. I am sure that Honiefaith Ratila would agree with me.

[Mulboyne]

[Mike Oxlong]

[Mulboyne]

Shinichi Sano wrote a book in 2003 about the case. ZakZak quotes him here (Japanese) saying the police falsified evidence. Police alleged Govinda had a key to the apartment but a witness said the key was returned before the murder. Sano says police threatened the witness and coerced him into changing his evidence so it seemed that Govinda did have the key at the time of the murder.

Here's a sympathetic news report on the new findings which includes photos of Govinda and interviews with his family:

[YT]jZ67TS0wgBE[/YT]

There's another FG thread which touches on the double jeopardy issue raised by the case.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Wonder how Govinda will react when authorities turn around and say, "Er, sorry. My bad?"

Also wonder whether they'll fight to keep him in-cuntry again, especially if he has a yen for a wrongful conviction lawsuit...

It must have been some other foreigner who killed her...

[Doctor Stop]

If he's cleared of the murder, the prosecutors will probably charge him for overstaying his visa while he was wrongly incarcerated.