Cops in Tokyo

M Arnold ma_iku at hotmail.com
Sun Apr 23 15:49:25 EDT 2006


I'm very curious to hear more about Kinema Club, Nippon Connection, and any 
of the other recent Japanese film activities. If anyone has info, please 
share!

This message isn't really related to Japanese film, but I wanted to post 
here and see if others have had similar experiences recently.

As some of you know, I'm living in Tokyo now doing Japanese film-related 
research. Life in Tokyo is swell as always, but since last December I've 
been hassled by the police a number of times. Until recently, in years of 
studying and working in Japan, I had never once been confronted by a 
Japanese policeman. However since December, when four cops on bikes and foot 
surrounded me on a street next to the station in Koenji, pretended that they 
didn't realize I was white, and then asked for my foreigner ID card and 
wouldn't tell me why, cops have been stopping me on the street every few 
weeks. One time, when I was riding my bike along a road near my apartment, a 
patrol car passed me and suddenly swerved onto the sidewalk several meters 
in front of me. A cop jumped out, rushed over to stop me, and said he wanted 
to check my bike registration number, but after he looked me over he backed 
off without calling the number in.

Another time I was riding my bike west on Ome Kaido from Shinjuku when a cop 
stepped out from the shadows, waving his flashlight. He asked to search my 
backpack with the excuse that a lot of people are wandering around the area 
these days with concealed weapons such as big butcher knives. I told him I 
was a graduate student researching Japanese film, and he said he was very 
happy that foreign students were taking such an honest interest in Japanese 
culture. He then asked me if I knew who Mishima Yukio was, and told me I 
need to read Mishima's "Kodogaku nyumon" (On Action) before I leave the 
country. (Just to be safe, I went and picked up a copy at Book Off for 250 
yen.)

[Just a quick sidenote: Mishima's infamous "Yukoku" is currently screening 
at Kineka Omori. http://www.cinemabox.com/schedule/omori/index.shtml]

Among other incidents, the most ridiculous one happened two weeks ago when I 
was walking past the front of Koenji station in the a.m. with a film 
director, actress, and a salaryman acquaintance of theirs. The actress went 
off somewhere, and as the three of us walked past the entrance to the 
station, a short-ish, young looking guy in plain clothes jumped off the 
railing he was leaning against and, with eyes darting back and forth, asked 
me to show my foreigner registration card. He flashed his badge for an 
instant and said he was a "head patrol officer" (junsacho) for Public 
Security (Koan). I pulled out my ID while my two companions stood there with 
their mouths gaping open. "I don't believe this," they said. "It happens a 
lot recently," I replied. Once the officer checked my card he retreated back 
to his position on the railing. Two or three other normal looking people who 
had been wandering around the station entrance walked over to him 
momentarily, said something, and then went back to their positions as well.

Walking away, my two middle-aged Japanese companions couldn't believe what 
had just happened. Once they collected their senses, they decided such an 
unconvincing Koan officer must be a fake--either just a police otaku who 
gets his kicks from pretending to be an undercover cop, or worse, a yakuza 
who hangs around the station extorting money from gaijin who don't have 
proper ID. (He certainly looked too wimpy to be a "head patrol officer.") So 
they decided to go to the nearby police box, and we asked the regular cops 
to check and make sure this secret police guy was for real. The uniformed 
cops walked back over to the head patrol officer with us, asked for his ID, 
and after chatting for a minute decided, sure enough, he was the real thing. 
Apparently the Koan folks don't have any contact with the regular police, so 
the police had no way of knowing there were Koan patrolling their station. 
We asked the regular cops why foreigners are getting hassled around Koenji, 
and as their faces got redder and redder, they told us the usual 
unconvincing excuses--crimes by foreigners are on the rise, many foreigners 
are overstaying their visas, etc. Immediately afterwards, the director and I 
walked to a nearby park for a cup of coffee and noticed two other men 
following us part of the way.

It almost seems like a joke, but frankly I'm starting to get a little 
worried. I never used to pay much attention to the police here, but now 
whenever I pass one, I expect to get stopped. For a moment after the Koenji 
incident, I wondered if the cops might have me blacklisted for hanging out 
with dirty movie directors and radical film researchers, or for taking 
pictures in Yasukuni on August 15, or for watching movies at the Shinjuku 
Kokusai Gekijo. (The director who was with me in Koenji thinks I'm being 
targeted for having spent a little time with certain 'left wing' directors 
in recent months.)

I wonder if anyone else has had problems recently. I've heard from friends 
and other Japanese film fans or researchers who have had more trouble than 
usual with the police in recent months (including one member of this list). 
I have no idea why the cops have gotten so dangerous all of a sudden, but if 
any non-Japanese list members are planning to wander around western Tokyo, 
you might want to make sure your bike is registered and you're carrying a 
copy of "Kodogaku nyumon" with your passport.

Michael Arnold 


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