Cops in Tokyo

Peter Larson peter_larson2000 at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 23 23:29:21 EDT 2006


I guess I'd be surprised except this was an almost
everyday occurence for me when I lived in Osaka. I
used to have to ride my bike from Namba to Juso to see
my then girlfriend (now wife) and would often be
stopped as I was crossing the bridge over the
Yodogawa. At one point, it got so bad that I was
stopped every day for 10 days straight. Everytime they
would ask to see my gaijin card, lecture me about the
merits of registering my bike, etc, and everytime the
same group of police would act as if they had never
seen me before. 

Of course, I asked "why me?" and got the same empty
excuse "many crimes have been committed by foreign
people recently". One night I pointed out that most
crimes in japan are committed by Japanese so why don't
they just stop every single Japanese person crossing
the bridge and leave me alone.

At the tenth day, I couldn't take it any more and went
into a screaming tirade about the maltreatment of
foreigners on bicycles in Japan and told them to go
and find some actual crime to harrass people over. My
rant probably would have landed me in the back seat of
a police car here in the USA (or worse!) but here they
just tried to flag me away as quickly as possible and
never stopped me again.

It was this kind of thing that had me almost
completely batty before I left Japan. It's unfortunate
that this kind of activity exists in Japan, but I
guess African-Americans and other minorities in US
face the same treatment every day of their lives.

Pete


--- M Arnold <ma_iku at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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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