Cops in Tokyo

[Jason Gray]

Mike,

Sorry to hear about the hassles. In the past couple weeks,
I've seen several people (Japanese) pulled over on their
bicycles at night. There must be a quota they have to
reach.

The only other thing I can think of -- and I'm not being
facetious -- are you still wearing a moustache and beard?
Untrained or overzealous cop -- a little hard to see a
moving target or at night --  some kind of gaijin setsumei
handed down from HQ -- "Middle Eastern" bells go off in
their head. It feels ridiculous even typing it, but...










--- M Arnold <ma_iku at hotmail.com> ?????????
> 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 
>