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When stopped by police

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I know recording without consent is admissable. Good to have next time the judge allows "heresay" from a bad boss which from my research, I believe is also admissable. I don't know that you are actually required to show ID without probable cause and reasonable suspicion unless they believe a crime is about to be committed. I refused officers for several minutes exiting the subway gate in a jokingly way, bumbling over Passimo cards, Lawson point cards, and my Mastercard Elite as substitutes which obviously they didn't find as funny as I did. Two more gimps came to the rescue in a harsh tone. Doubt they even were certain they had the right as well. Just don't make eye contact with them exiting the subway as that seems to be a profiling trigger.
 
- Don’t have drugs on you
- If you are out of shape don’t run
- If you have any legal issues don’t pretend to not understand & keep walking
- Don’t argue with them if you know you have pending legal issues.
I know some people locked up or deported in the past.
 
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Most Japanese cops are of way below average intelligence. They go to 'physical education colleges'. Yes, there is such a thing. That is where they do judo all day until their ears swell up like gyoza and their necks get fatter than their very fat heads. They become cops because they like the idea of having authority over people and they like to enforce the rules. It makes their little brains spin faster and they like it. So when you get stopped by one, you should not think about 'your rights' or any silly shit like that, you should just shut your trap, show them your ID and answer their questions, be polite and show deference. Comment positively on the size of their necks, but dont mention the gyoza ears. They will let you go. If you have broken the law, apoligize. If you have hurt someone or damaged someones property, apologize and offer restitution. Remember, If they have stopped you, you are already guilty of something and you must now prove your innocence. It is likely that you are only guilty of being smarter than them, but that is pretty bad in their eyes, so dont make it worse for yourself by being insulting or arrogant. Just let them lord it over you for a few minutes and they will let you go. If you are holding drugs or if your skin is brown, run like hell.
 
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Debito is an activist, and it’s important to remember this. He cares more about making a point than he does about you getting in legal trouble.

Assuming you don’t have drugs or illegal weapons on you, there is nothing for you to gain by refusing to consent to an ID check or a search of your bag. If you refuse, all that happens is they summon more cops, make a ring around you, and refuse to let you leave until you consent or until they get bored. Since shift change is somewhere around 8 o’clock the next morning, it’s going to be a long time before they get bored.

split said:
I don't know that you are actually required to show ID without probable cause and reasonable suspicion unless they believe a crime is about to be committed.
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if they ask for your residence card, you are obligated by law to present it, regardless of circumstances. They, of course, are supposed to have a legitimate reason for asking, but regardless, you do not have the right to refuse. Refusal to present your residence card on request is punishable by a fine of up to 300,000 yen, and up to a year in prison.
 
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Someone who lives in Japan and believes anything The Japan Times writes should seriously consider moving back to their home country. That obviously includes all the reporters of the Japan Times.

And no, that is not "if you don't like it here just move out". This is just a friendly advice that if you have so much hatred for a country as the reporters in JT then continuing to live here just makes you a sad and an unhappy person.

If you want to avoid being asked for your ID then the best advice is to behave like a decent person and not to pee on the street, not to bother other people and especially not to grope the girls even if it feels like a great idea at the time.

I have managed to live in Tokyo for three decades without being stopped even once, so it obviously is manageable even when you are not a decent person.

And if they still stop you and ask for your ID how about you get it out of your wallet and hand it over? I bet it's easier than you think. The physical act of that is surprisingly doable.

Yeah, if you read the law they don't have the right to ask for your ID without seeing you commit a crime. But the law says also that if you are asked to present your ID then you have to do that. So if you want to be a freedom fighter show your ID and then sue all the cops for criminal behaviour.

Or as said, show them the bloody ID, get it back and move on with your life. How about that as an advice?
 
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split said:
That is an understatement considering how zealously they made that actress such a big example for having barely one dose of MDMA.
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They come down hard on celebrities because it gives them a chance to show the public that they are hard on drug users. I bet an averege no name Japanese guy caught with one hit of MDMA wouldnt even get any jailtime.
 
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warubuta said:
Most Japanese cops are of way below average intelligence. They go to 'physical education colleges'. Yes, there is such a thing. That is where they do judo all day until their ears swell up like gyoza and their necks get fatter than their very fat heads. They become cops because they like the idea of having authority over people and they like to enforce the rules. It makes their little brains spin faster and they like it. So when you get stopped by one, you should not think about 'your rights' or any silly shit like that, you should just shut your trap, show them your ID and answer their questions, be polite and show deference. Comment positively on the size of their necks, but dont mention the gyoza ears. They will let you go. If you have broken the law, apoligize. If you have hurt someone or damaged someones property, apologize and offer restitution. Remember, If they have stopped you, you are already guilty of something and you must now prove your innocence. It is likely that you are only guilty of being smarter than them, but that is pretty bad in their eyes, so dont make it worse for yourself by being insulting or arrogant. Just let them lord it over you for a few minutes and they will let you go. If you are holding drugs or if your skin is brown, run like hell.
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Agreed. Unless you are my paper-wife.
Once , it happened and she was with me.
I was ready to do all what you wrote and more, beating my own ass etc... but not her. She got out of the car, shouted at him in super rude Kansai-ben, told him she knew the mayor , local MP or sthg like that, will complain about him, will make him eat his nuts or whatever... the guy was shrieking and let us go
Sometimes (but rarely ) it helped to have such wife...:D
 
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warubuta said:
Correct, the smart ones are inside organizing raids on Thai massage places and those shops in Shinjuku that sell un-pixilated porn CDs.
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No.

The smart ones are out in the field doing research on Thai massage places and porn CDs.
 
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Desktop said:
@Frenchy your ex has obviously not seen the Chris Rock skit about cops.
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Well she’s not black and clearly the guy was not US-cop material , he was nearly pissing in his pants in the end. I felt sorry for him in fact
 
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I was actually stopped for a shokushitsu the other day while walking from the station.

Could I have been more proactive about defending my rights? Yes, of course. But pissing off the pair of cops stopping you on a shokushitsu is a very good way to spend the next few hours at a police station answering increasingly silly questions and getting yourself into worse and worse trouble. I suggest you let them feel good about themselves for a bit so that you can be on your way ASAP.

And yeah, as Sudsy points out above, you are to show your residence card (if resident) or passport (if non-resident) upon request. Don’t fight this — the penalty is severe.
 
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Interestingly enough, on my recent visit to Tokyo got approached by the Police.

a buddy and I opted to cycle through Tokyo, we got to experience a different side of it altogether. Awesome experience covered close to 40km across Tokyo.

We passed two cops and stopped for a photo op across one of the bridges with a barge in the background as I was getting ready to take my buds pic - they walked up to us, without hesitation we had our passports out to identify ourselves as tourists and then the questions went to whom do the bicycles belong. The interaction didn’t last too long but left it’s own sense of distaste- why the interaction was required to begin with.
 
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TAG Manager said:
Lots of stolen bicycles, period.
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Last month, I saw a cop standing on the sidewalk on Meiji Dori wearing an armband and stopping every bike that went passed and used some sort of scanner to read the registration number. First time I have seen that.
 
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namae said:
Last month, I saw a cop standing on the sidewalk on Meiji Dori wearing an armband and stopping every bike that went passed and used some sort of scanner to read the registration number. First time I have seen that.
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Yup. See that randomly at night in various neighborhoods. Saw one most recently around the area of Nakano, just stopping everyone that was riding by. (checking each bike, plus some extra for those riding at night without lights..)
 
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tagidol said:
stopped for a photo op across one of the bridges
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Though in your case I am sure they checked for the stolen bikes if you stop in the middle of the night in the middle of a big bridge you don't have to be there long to get a cop to come to check if you are planning for a jump.

Did that in one of my night rides recently and just in a few minutes I got a cop showing up; he looked at me, saw me on my phone and decided nothing further is needed so he did a 180 and went back to his merry ways.
 
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aspidistra said:
I
And yeah, as Sudsy points out above, you are to show your residence card (if resident) or passport (if non-resident) upon request. Don’t fight this — the penalty is severe.
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So this leads me to a question. I'm not anti-cop but what about the case of foreigners visiting Japan. To be honest, I'd be surprised if any of you said you did not lock up your passport in the hotel safe your first few visits here and had been stopped. What do they do in that case? Call the hotel? Can the hotel privalege police on personal details here? I assume not and call immigrations to check what hotel you are staying at, despite not knowing your passport number.
 
split said:
So this leads me to a question. I'm not anti-cop but what about the case of foreigners visiting Japan. To be honest, I'd be surprised if any of you said you did not lock up your passport in the hotel safe your first few visits here and had been stopped. What do they do in that case? Call the hotel? Can the hotel privalege police on personal details here? I assume not and call immigrations to check what hotel you are staying at, despite not knowing your passport number.
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make a printed copy of your passport. Both the picture page and the page where your stamp is in.
 
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Maybe I'm too old school. Less paperwork, less money, less women. But most importantly less paperwork.
 
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