My Experience With The Police (recently)

[TAG Manager]

tl;dr = Got stopped by the police while driving, argument ensues, I go home without a ticket.

Well, I suppose it was inevitable, it was just a matter of time before it happened...

For the years I've spent in Japan, I've never really had an issue with the Japanese police aside from their random ID checking or bag check, which I had not experienced for a long time.

This time, I was driving in Tokyo, around the Tokyo Station/Yurakucho area. Again, previously, no previous incident during the period which I've been driving in Japan.

So , I approach a signal to turn left and I had started to move over where I was permitted to (white, dotted line) which transitioned over to a yellow solid line (not supposed to cross) -- 95% of my car was within the yellow lines, except for the right-rear corner of my car. The car in front of me stopped sooner than I expected for the light, so I could not get 100% over to the left side to make sure I was completely in the yellow lines.

After I'm stopped, this police officer comes running over to my window and urges me to roll-down the window. He started off very rude and basically berated me for my car being over the yellow line... and he said he had to write it up and to pull over to the side after the turn... which I did.

No, I had some friends in the car, which really didn't speak much English and my Japanese is functional when I want it to be. In this case, I forgot my Japanese since this guy was being a dick.... which my Japanese friends were shocked at this rudeness.

So, we start the back and forth of me not agreeing with his idea of the situation. He claims that I crossed the yellow line period... like I didn't start where it was white. (bullshit, I did.) His attitude was generally bad and I just shutdown the Japanese attempts and just switched to English, which pissed him off, I think.

The other guy working with him, refused to get involved which made me suspicious. So, I asked him to get someone that could speak English or bring me his supervisor. He said "I don't have a supervisor..." again, bullshit... lol. I'm like, dude, you're not the top guy. So, find me who your boss is and bring him to me, now.

He walked away after that and talked to his partner, who really looked like he didn't want to get involved. He then came back to the passenger side and tried to talk to my friends and said "You really don't speak any English?" (he wanted them to translate) -- My friends were like "Why should we help translate for you just so you can give a ticket to our friend?" .... lol. --- I told him that I didn't believe what he was saying and he said essentially "I saw it, you don't have to believe me." so then I said, "So, I can take this to court?" and "You don't have any proof or other witness, right?" -- he replied, "No, I don't need it, I saw it." -- I said "Sorry, don't believe you, let's finish this so we can go... you're wasting my time." --- "I'll take this to court and file a complaint about your approach and trying to give me something that you know I can't read." etc. etc. (In hindsight, I was a dick..but he deserved it.)

So, this back and forth went on for about 10 minutes and he finally gave up. He just gave me a verbal warning and let me go... Not sure what made that happen, he was bound and determined to write a ticket originally.

The problem I had with this, mainly was around his attitude. His first approach and further attitude really put me off and it's not what I would have expected.

Just wanted to vent a bit, I'm still in a bit of a rage over this today... even though it happened awhile ago now.

 

[Hamerare]

Hey bro, sorry to hear about that experience. Essentially, u were unlucky, wrong place at wrong time, but u got out of the situation so well done

I have had a few brushes with the law, most of the coppers I came across in Japan have been ok but occasionally u get a nasty one. U can bet that he is disliked by all his colleagues too. Just a petty individual taking his frustrations out on others

 

[GoldenDalton]

tl;dr = Got stopped by the police while driving, argument ensues, I go home without a ticket.

Well, I suppose it was inevitable, it was just a matter of time before it happened...

For the years I've spent in Japan, I've never really had an issue with the Japanese police aside from their random ID checking or bag check, which I had not experienced for a long time.

This time, I was driving in Tokyo, around the Tokyo Station/Yurakucho area. Again, previously, no previous incident during the period which I've been driving in Japan.

So , I approach a signal to turn left and I had started to move over where I was permitted to (white, dotted line) which transitioned over to a yellow solid line (not supposed to cross) -- 95% of my car was within the yellow lines, except for the right-rear corner of my car. The car in front of me stopped sooner than I expected for the light, so I could not get 100% over to the left side to make sure I was completely in the yellow lines.

After I'm stopped, this police officer comes running over to my window and urges me to roll-down the window. He started off very rude and basically berated me for my car being over the yellow line... and he said he had to write it up and to pull over to the side after the turn... which I did.

No, I had some friends in the car, which really didn't speak much English and my Japanese is functional when I want it to be. In this case, I forgot my Japanese since this guy was being a dick.... which my Japanese friends were shocked at this rudeness.

So, we start the back and forth of me not agreeing with his idea of the situation. He claims that I crossed the yellow line period... like I didn't start where it was white. (bullshit, I did.) His attitude was generally bad and I just shutdown the Japanese attempts and just switched to English, which pissed him off, I think.

The other guy working with him, refused to get involved which made me suspicious. So, I asked him to get someone that could speak English or bring me his supervisor. He said "I don't have a supervisor..." again, bullshit... lol. I'm like, dude, you're not the top guy. So, find me who your boss is and bring him to me, now.

He walked away after that and talked to his partner, who really looked like he didn't want to get involved. He then came back to the passenger side and tried to talk to my friends and said "You really don't speak any English?" (he wanted them to translate) -- My friends were like "Why should we help translate for you just so you can give a ticket to our friend?" .... lol. --- I told him that I didn't believe what he was saying and he said essentially "I saw it, you don't have to believe me." so then I said, "So, I can take this to court?" and "You don't have any proof or other witness, right?" -- he replied, "No, I don't need it, I saw it." -- I said "Sorry, don't believe you, let's finish this so we can go... you're wasting my time." --- "I'll take this to court and file a complaint about your approach and trying to give me something that you know I can't read." etc. etc. (In hindsight, I was a dick..but he deserved it.)

So, this back and forth went on for about 10 minutes and he finally gave up. He just gave me a verbal warning and let me go... Not sure what made that happen, he was bound and determined to write a ticket originally.

The problem I had with this, mainly was around his attitude. His first approach and further attitude really put me off and it's not what I would have expected.

Just wanted to vent a bit, I'm still in a bit of a rage over this today... even though it happened awhile ago now.

I identify with your anger- you did everything you could to be polite and it sounds like he was on a psycho power trip.

At the same time, I envy you guys in Japan permanently even more after reading this. The cops in the USA are freaking terrorists these days. At least in big cities. I get that there are murderers and gangsters wrecking things, but damn.

I can't imagine refuting a cop like that in the U.S. Here in St. Louis they are walking around with sub machine guns. I get that people are rioting but still. A rioter kicked my car door in while it was in a parking lot but id much rather deal with that than with a cop on a power trip.

Anyway, don't wanna turn it around on me. I'm glad you didn't get a ticket, and got out of his bs rage. The great thing is that your friends in the car meant that he would have had a real challenge in court. Sounds like you got out Scot-free, aside from the anger, which I can identify with.

 

[Sudsy]

Of my six moving violations in Japan, five were in Chuo-ku. The one that wasn't in Chuo-ku was just a parking ticket for parking in a spot that was apparently reserved for the elderly (I couldn't read the kanji back then) - no other municipality seems to have a problem with my actual driving.

Each ward has its police force staffing assigned by population of residents and workers in the ward, and when you throw in the workers, Chuo-ku has one of the highest populations - while being the smallest ward.

The end result is that they have more traffic cops per kilometer of road than any other place in Japan, and to keep their quotas up to par with cops in other municipalities, they have to be extra aggressive.

These days, I route my driving to stay out of Chuo-ku whenever possible.

 

[Username1]

I myself would be the same. I could be wrong here but I think we are so used to the police here being friendly and polite that we almost expect to be treated that way every time even if we are in the wrong.

Again, I am sure in the same situation that I would have reacted the same - I did just a few weeks ago for a parking violation - but I am also sure I wouldn't get away with that shit back home!

 

[TheDutchElm]

"Why should we help translate for you just so you can give a ticket to our friend?" .... lol

LOL indeed! Those are some first class JP friends right there! Fucking gold... I have never been harassed by police in Tokyo, but my general impression of them is 1) petty 2) incompetent 3) stupid. As a rule, I enjoy seeing people with those qualities get what they deserve.

 

[k1234k]

My favorite part of the story was how that overzealous cop's wingman left him hanging.

He probably didn't see you break the law, and wasn't willing to commit perjury to back up psycho-cop's 'statement'.

Justice is served!

 

[TAG Manager]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm still amazed that I came away unscathed from that event. I was so livid at the time about this guy's attitude, but I kept my cool and survived...

Certainly, I'm going to be sporting an eagle eye at these intersections where they are trying to be sneaky.

There is one spot near my place, where they sit and wait for people to run 1 of 2 signals in their view. You know what? If you run either of those signals, you deserve a ticket in that case. It's too god damn dangerous to run those particular lights where vision is truly obscured.

I did a bunch of driving over the last few days, I still get a little edgy around intersections and yellow lines, lol.......... that rage comes back! haha.