The police in Japan do not have any right to search you or your car without justifiable cause or reasonable suspicion that you are committing a crime. Meaning that just because they's stopped all cars driving along to check everyone with a breathalyzer, to see if they've been drinking, you are not required to consent nor do they have any right to force you to consent to this test or any search.
That goes for all illegal searches and idiotic things like entering Narita airport when those clowns ask you for your drivers license and to open your car trunk or luggage to search for whatever it is they are searching for.
If people in Japan don't start putting their foot down, then this country is going to keep becoming more and more like the police state the United States has become.
I've been preaching and preaching to all the Japanese people I know to begin to stand up for their rights. Too many Japanese people submit to illegal and unconstitutional searches, I think it's time to start saying politely, "No!"
Several months ago, I took my family to Guam (I am never going to Guam again because of the TSA, but that's another story). At Narita, I witnesses a female security agent fondling searching what looked to be a 8 or 9-year-old girl. Her dimwit parents stood there and were laughing and taking photos!
As the father of a child who has been molested by a stranger, I grew furious. I stopped and walked over to the security agent who was molesting searching the little girl and said,
"That's completely illegal and a crime for an adult to fondle a child like that. This is a crime!"
I then demanded that the security agent call her supervisor. The search stopped immediately. When the supervisor arrived I gave him a piece of my mind and reiterated the charges of child molestation. He meekly responded,
"She didn't use the detection wand on the child?"
"No!" I protested. I again reiterated that it is a crime under Japanese law for any adult to touch the body of any child like that, under any circumstances, and that I would report it to the police. I looked at the parents of that poor girl and said,
"Don't let this happen to your kids again!"
Once again, folks, Japanese law is the same as US law in this case; the police have no right to conduct a search on your or your possessions without reasonable cause. Just because you are driving a car into the airport is not reasonable cause...
MoAr @ Marketing Japan
