The curious tale of the incarceration of a 74 year old tourist

[Mulboyne]

That's interesting, SJ. I know police in Shinjuku are fairly active in questioning foreigners and lone young Japanese guys but I assumed they mostly took the initiative.

Another point I don't quite understand about this fiasco is the length of his incarceration. I read speculation that he refused to sign a gomen nasai letter and presumably the police didn't want to let him go free without something to show for their effort. I'm wondering if it took ten days for him to work out it was OK to sign or whether the prosecutor eventually figured there was no mileage in keeping him locked up for a misdemeanour and just let him go.

I think if I'd held out against signing anything on principle, I'd be pretty furious and want to shout about what happened from the rooftops. This chap, however, doesn't want to be named. Perhaps he and his son are pursuing some private action but there is no mention of that.

All in all, I would say the police need to review this policy of randomly questioning people who approach them for help, if indeed that's what happened. On top of that, this particular case ought to give police and prosecutors pause for thought about proportionality because this has caused a lot of unnecessary grief regardless of the letter of the law.

I'm not sure that foreigners can make a big deal about how they don't know what the law allows. After all, it was only relatively recently that Debito was on the case of a knife shop in Akihabara which didn't want to sell to tourists so we can't have it both ways. There might be a case for suggesting that signs go up at major ports of entry to warn that carrying a pocket knife can be deemed illegal.

[Kuang_Grade]

without falling into the 'japan would great if they only did things like they do elsewhere' trap, an simple safeguard would be just to limit the 7 additional day holding period for certain minor classes of crimes be conditional on the prosecutor proving it is both vital and necessary that the suspect be detained as well as showing what information will be collected during this period (or limit the maximum detention period for these crimes to say, 5 days). Yeah, I know a vaguely independent judiciary is far too much to ask for, but for something like say, a shoplifting charge, do they really need up to 10 days to make the case? Are they really going to figure all that much more about the case on days 4 through 10? (outside using that additional time to simply grind out a confession, of course)

[Samurai_Jerk]

How exacly does this law work anyway? If I pick up a new kitchen knife set at my local Donki and carry it home, am I technically in violation of the law while in transit? I guess we were all violating the law when I was on JET and we (teachers and students) used knives to cut up the veggies at the camp ground BBQ pits on our annual Nikko Ensoku.

I if I ever go apeshit and split some heads with baseball bats in the streets of Chuo-ku, they'll probably require a batting license or someshit if you want to play baseball. Fucking retarded.

So, can I assume that no one knows?

[dimwit]

So, can I assume that no one knows?

I assumed the question was rhetorical. My guess is that the laws allows you to carry knifes that are packaged as kitchen knives sensably should be.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I assumed the question was rhetorical. My guess is that the laws allows you to carry knifes that are packaged as kitchen knives sensably should be.

Yeah, I figured that too. But what exactly is the law? It seems like it's at the discretion of the police to decided whether or not you're carrying a knife for legitimate reasons.

[Coligny]

Indeed! Good job, Colignychanpoo!

I dun't understand...

But my rule is to never break 2 laws at the same time. So to allow for a little safety reserve I try not to break any on purpose. (remember that Al Capone was put in the slammer for tax fraud...)
Now if you want to test my understanding of which traffic light to obey at your average japanese road clusterfuck-intersection don't expect a good score...

[Samurai_Jerk]

I dun't understand...

But my rule is to never break 2 laws at the same time.

That's actually a very good rule. When I was in high school a friend of a friend who some kind of Chinese gangster got stopped by police for hopping the turnstile at the subway station. They did a routine body check and found a hand gun.

[Taro Toporific]

...it's at the discretion of the police to decided whether or not you're carrying a knife for legitimate reasons.

Yep, phase-of-moon, case-by-case.

[Mike Oxlong]

Too bad this wasn't aplicable in Japan...

An excellent lecture, if you can spare the time:

[Iraira]

That's actually a very good rule. When I was in high school a friend of a friend who some kind of Chinese gangster got stopped by police for hopping the turnstile at the subway station. They did a routine body check and found a hand gun.

he shoulda listened to Chris Rock...

[Taro Toporific]

Mulboyne tweets
Police arrest man with Swiss army knife. Release him 8 hours later when they realize he wasn't breaking any law: http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20121104 ... 5000c.html (J)


Goofy Google Translate...

not-again.jpg

[Coligny]

Ok, so here we got clear professionnal misconduct. Are them copper gunna be fired ?

[matsuki]

Ok, so here we got clear professionnal misconduct. Are them copper gunna be fired ?

Or sued?

[gaijinpunch]

Haha. You whites are so funny. I believe the explanation you might get from a local yokel is, "it's taboo to fire a police officer". I got something similar once when I talked about filing whatever the J-equivalent would be to malpractice against a doctor.

[matsuki]

Haha. You whites are so funny. I believe the explanation you might get from a local yokel is, "it's taboo to fire a police officer". I got something similar once when I talked about filing whatever the J-equivalent would be to malpractice against a doctor.

Doctor would be easy to get a pay out from.....camp out in front of his business with a bunch of signs and some nasty lookin' pictures (google is your friend) and demo against the practice.

[Coligny]

From my side of the fence... judging by the number of insurance for the hospital and taken by the docs... Sueing a doc while not a nationnal sport is far from a rarity...