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When stopped by police

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Only ever got stopped once in 10+ years, and that was for the crime of riding my bicycle without working lights the short distance to the local konbini, tragically for them they made the mistake of stopping me in the konbini parking lot, not on the public road, so they had to resort to radioing in to the 24/7 Bicycle Registration Control Center, which I imagine is a cavernous bunker beneath the Keishicho full of people hunched over workstations plotting the course of stolen mamacharis while a bank of wall-mounted screens shows scenes of bicycle-related hotspot activity across the Kanto area, and they got excited for a brief moment as they couldn't find the registration sticker, which the guy in the shop had stuck somewhere inconspicuous, but ultimately they were satisfied that the registration matched the name I gave them ("Colonel Sanders") and sent on my way with nary a check of any ID, presumably hoping I would be dumb enough to cycle off down the public road.

You must look like the Colonel. No ID check required.

I wonder how many times in the history of the Japanese police force a meeting has been convened to discuss upgrading their bicycles? 0?
 
Only ever got stopped once in 10+ years, and that was for the crime of riding my bicycle without working lights the short distance to the local konbini, tragically for them they made the mistake of stopping me in the konbini parking lot, not on the public road, so they had to resort to radioing in to the 24/7 Bicycle Registration Control Center, which I imagine is a cavernous bunker beneath the Keishicho full of people hunched over workstations plotting the course of stolen mamacharis while a bank of wall-mounted screens shows scenes of bicycle-related hotspot activity across the Kanto area, and they got excited for a brief moment as they couldn't find the registration sticker, which the guy in the shop had stuck somewhere inconspicuous, but ultimately they were satisfied that the registration matched the name I gave them ("Colonel Sanders") and sent on my way with nary a check of any ID, presumably hoping I would be dumb enough to cycle off down the public road.
Excellent! In the Gaijjn written and directed version of The Pink Panther, the Japanese omawarisan version of Clouseau would be stopping some hapless gaijin and harassing him over his bicycle registration while a major bank heist happened in the background - bombs, blood, mayhem - omawarisan completely oblivious to it all.
 
You must look like the Colonel. No ID check required.

The police here and everywhere is normally very single tracked. If they are checking bicycle registrations then they are checking bicycle registrations and not your zairyu card.

Probably the boys who are trained to check bicycles haven't gone through the zairyu card training course and vice versa.
 
The police here and everywhere is normally very single tracked. If they are checking bicycle registrations then they are checking bicycle registrations and not your zairyu card.

Probably the boys who are trained to check bicycles haven't gone through the zairyu card training course and vice versa.

I haven't invested anytime in understanding the Japanese bicycle registration process ..... but wouldn't it be necessary to ask for the Colonels ID to confirm he is in fact the person registered as the owner of the bicycle? or is the bike scanner just reading a database of bicycles reported stolen?
 
I haven't invested anytime in understanding the Japanese bicycle registration process ..... but wouldn't it be necessary to ask for the Colonels ID to confirm he is in fact the person registered as the owner of the bicycle? or is the bike scanner just reading a database of bicycles reported stolen?
My guess is that the cop was told specifically by a more senior cop to not check IDs. My other guess is that the database query against the reg number produces a name and if the guy on the bike can say the name, the cop assumes that it’s legit. Very few bike thieves know the name of the person from whom they stole the bike.
 
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Perhaps Kanto police are more advanced or dedicated to their jobs, but I was stopped on bicycle many times during my years in Osaka by roaming police and I never had a problem. And I was dressed like a teacher still (button up shirt, sweater, slacks, glasses, briefcase in my basket) so I looked 110% Cousin of Tojo and they definitely weren't pegging me as a foreigner to harass. And I was stopped using multiple bikes--some registered to me, some registered to buddies who would visit from back home and buy a bike at the department store just to have around for the next visit--and the cops never even bothered asking about that. Same procedure, they stop me while I'm peddling home, I immediately pull out my gaijin card and explain that I'm a teacher at ***** High School, they radio in something and in a few minutes I'm on my way. No questions. No other scrutiny. My guess is that they're looking for bikes that are specifically listed as stolen.

Then again, I do believe that Osaka's cops are particularly useless compared to those I've encountered in Tokyo. In more recent years during return vacation trips to Japan, I've been stopped for those random drug searches in the streets of downtown Tokyo multiple times, was even detained in an unmarked vehicle once, and I was actually quite impressed with the intelligence and professionalism. One senior cop even let me off with a warning after finding something technically prohibited on me, but he was quite friendly after learning about the line or work I was in and cut me some slack. Ended up chatting with he and his partner in the car about their jobs, procedures, equipment, the types of firearms and holsters they're issued. Encounter ended with handshakes and them waving goodbye as I walked away, headed to Okachimachi to have a nice Korean lady play with my genitals. Maybe it's just my magical, magnetic personality.
 
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This conversation made me remembered being stopped by the police which had a police box about 300 meters from where I lived.
It was a young cop & I walked by the police box everyday & he suddenly asked for an ID as I was walking behind their police box. In this situation I calmly asked what was the reason since I walk up & down the street every day & live right over there. I also told him I care about my image in the neighborhood if the police are asking me for my ID suddenly. If something happened by someone looking like me I’ll cooperate. A senior office came out heard us, apologized & none of them ever bothered me again.
I think they asked me the same thing a few days before so I wasn’t too happy.
 
I was also told by an ex-police acquaintance of mine that as long as you present your residence card (or your passport, in case you’re here on a short term visa) they need a warrant to search for your belongings. But the reality is if you’re not a very stubborn person and assuming that you don’t carry illegal substances it’s a good idea to let them do so.

I don’t want to jump on the “I’m a model gaijin with impeccable Japanese skills and endless respect for the local culture” bandwagon but I have never been stopped for a search either. That’s probably because I’m a white passing, discreetly dressed innocent looking woman. My brown/med/middle eastern male friends with a dark complexion or beard on the other hand have frequent visits to the police box and they don’t fight back at all. (These are family guys with employment who don’t get high in Roppongi but they still get stopped by the police randomly) From their account, I know you will immediately be surrounded by a brigade of police officers if you attempt to resist them..

Police officers in Japan must be very bored. There are no demonstrations, no serious crime, no uprising against politic instability.
 
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they need a warrant to search for your belongings.

Yes, but that is surprisingly easy for them to get if they want. They just need to talk to you for an hour while one of them explains to a judge they suspect you are carrying drugs and refuse being searched and soon one of them comes back with the fresh warrant.

As you said they are bored and nothing makes the time fly by as frisking someone who thinks they have rights.
 
Well, I was stopped twice, both times outside ANA Intercontinental.

The first time it's probably because they believed I am sort of Uyoku, when I was obviously telling a political joke too visually to a friend of mine, as we saw the Vietnam flags dotted on the way to National Diet Building.

The other time was when I got off from this same friend's minivan. Initially I had no idea what's wrong, until I realized it's a black-colored Hiace, and this moron put on the windshield a sticker he bought from Hokkaido as souvenir. It's some random kanji in black and red color, and a design remotely resemble the rising sun:shifty:
 
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.
I feel safe enough walking around Japan that I don't have any problem with keeping my passport with me. My only complaint is that it's awkward to keep in a pocket and I don't carry around any sort of backpack or anything most of the time. I keep meaning to try to find out if just carrying around the credit card sized passport card I can get would satisfy the law.

When I visit London however, that thing stays locked up in the hotel/airbnb. Some of the pickpockets in the tube stations could steal your underwear without you noticing.
 
You all say that if asked for the ID, the best is to cooperate. But the truth is that it must suck big time to be a Japanese national who is black/brown/white and being asked for the id all the time just because of the color of the skin.

I'm sure that many people on this forum have kids in this situation.
 
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You all say that if asked for the ID, the best is to cooperate. But the truth is that it must suck big time to be a Japanese national who is black/brown/white and being asked for the id all the time just because of the color of the skin.

I'm sure that many people on this forum have kids in this situation.
I'm sure it does suck. The alternative probably sucks more though. Just sayin'. I mean, they're going to keep doing it whether we agree with it or not so the choice today is between showing your papers and getting on with your day -or- spending the rest of it at the police station with a bunch of limp dick cops that want to act all big and bad. I don't agree with it but I know what choice I'm making if it ever happens to me. Maybe things will change in the future but Japan is slow to change.
 
You all say that if asked for the ID, the best is to cooperate. But the truth is that it must suck big time to be a Japanese national who is black/brown/white and being asked for the id all the time just because of the color of the skin.

I'm sure that many people on this forum have kids in this situation.
I think that the number of instances where cops stops someone only because they are obviously not Japanese is not as large as it is portrayed on the various english language Japan websites. Getting 'gaijin carded' is probably pretty rare, and when it does happen, the cops have a reason other than pure gaijinness. Alcohol, late at night, being in Roppongi or Shibuya, etc. I dont know of anyone who gets asked for his id 'all the time'.
 
I think that the number of instances where cops stops someone only because they are obviously not Japanese is not as large as it is portrayed on the various english language Japan websites. Getting 'gaijin carded' is probably pretty rare, and when it does happen, the cops have a reason other than pure gaijinness. Alcohol, late at night, being in Roppongi or Shibuya, etc. I dont know of anyone who gets asked for his id 'all the time'.

I would tend to agree with this. Again, not sure if things are just different in Osaka but back when we were fresh, young eikaiwa grunts my friends and I (and I was the only "Asian" looking guy, rest were white) would raise fucking hell at the local park after work near our apartment complex and nobody ever got carded. I mean binge drinking (and these are Irish and Aussies), hollering, blowing shit up with bottle rockets and shooting each other with roman candles, pissing in the bushes, trying to whack cicadas with a football and the most the local cops ever did was ride by on their bicycles and ask us of we could possibly quiet down a little in the next hour because it was past 8pm. Same goes out in public, out on the town on a Saturday night and acting like hooligans all up and down the Shinsaibashi shotengai. Some cops gave us disgusted looks but nobody ever got stopped for ID.

The only time everyone got seriously carded was when three of my buddies got into a brawl at a Jankara around midnight, and this time it wasn't their fault. A few teachers getting blackout drunk, howling out 80s pop songs and dancing on the sofas and in the next room over, a few curious college girls obviously wanted a taste of the gaijin experience so they got a little flirty. Across the hall, a drunken group of budding uyoku nationalists didn't like these white guys talking to Japanese girls so they confronted my buddies in the hallway and a brawl ensued. Less than 20 seconds later all four or five Japanese boys are unconscious and/or crying on the floor, my buddies are high-fiving each other, staff and police come and my friends were about to be arrested except the girls were wailing to the police that the Japanese instigated the fight and attacked the poor, handsome gaijin boys. One of the punks ended up having to pay restitution to my friend for a minor injury he sustained, although he could've very well hurt himself before the fight, falling off the table in the karaoke room and whacking his head on the table.

But hey, at the end of the night, they got to get drunk, sing shitty songs, beat some ass and on top of that they went home with some phone numbers. That's a win-win if I've ever heard of one.
 
I think that the number of instances where cops stops someone only because they are obviously not Japanese is not as large as it is portrayed on the various english language Japan websites. Getting 'gaijin carded' is probably pretty rare, and when it does happen, the cops have a reason other than pure gaijinness. Alcohol, late at night, being in Roppongi or Shibuya, etc. I dont know of anyone who gets asked for his id 'all the time'.
Over 20 years and just 2 times.
 
I would tend to agree with this. Again, not sure if things are just different in Osaka but back when we were fresh, young eikaiwa grunts my friends and I (and I was the only "Asian" looking guy, rest were white) would raise fucking hell at the local park after work near our apartment complex and nobody ever got carded. I mean binge drinking (and these are Irish and Aussies), hollering, blowing shit up with bottle rockets and shooting each other with roman candles, pissing in the bushes, trying to whack cicadas with a football and the most the local cops ever did was ride by on their bicycles and ask us of we could possibly quiet down a little in the next hour because it was past 8pm. Same goes out in public, out on the town on a Saturday night and acting like hooligans all up and down the Shinsaibashi shotengai. Some cops gave us disgusted looks but nobody ever got stopped for ID.

The only time everyone got seriously carded was when three of my buddies got into a brawl at a Jankara around midnight, and this time it wasn't their fault. A few teachers getting blackout drunk, howling out 80s pop songs and dancing on the sofas and in the next room over, a few curious college girls obviously wanted a taste of the gaijin experience so they got a little flirty. Across the hall, a drunken group of budding uyoku nationalists didn't like these white guys talking to Japanese girls so they confronted my buddies in the hallway and a brawl ensued. Less than 20 seconds later all four or five Japanese boys are unconscious and/or crying on the floor, my buddies are high-fiving each other, staff and police come and my friends were about to be arrested except the girls were wailing to the police that the Japanese instigated the fight and attacked the poor, handsome gaijin boys. One of the punks ended up having to pay restitution to my friend for a minor injury he sustained, although he could've very well hurt himself before the fight, falling off the table in the karaoke room and whacking his head on the table.

But hey, at the end of the night, they got to get drunk, sing shitty songs, beat some ass and on top of that they went home with some phone numbers. That's a win-win if I've ever heard of one.

hmmmm... did you just copy/paste this from a previous post? I kinda remember that story
You and your friends were douchebags by the way, I wish Police had been stricter :)
 
I would tend to agree with this. Again, not sure if things are just different in Osaka but back when we were fresh, young eikaiwa grunts my friends and I (and I was the only "Asian" looking guy, rest were white) would raise fucking hell at the local park after work near our apartment complex and nobody ever got carded. I mean binge drinking (and these are Irish and Aussies), hollering, blowing shit up with bottle rockets and shooting each other with roman candles, pissing in the bushes, trying to whack cicadas with a football and the most the local cops ever did was ride by on their bicycles and ask us of we could possibly quiet down a little in the next hour because it was past 8pm. Same goes out in public, out on the town on a Saturday night and acting like hooligans all up and down the Shinsaibashi shotengai. Some cops gave us disgusted looks but nobody ever got stopped for ID.

The only time everyone got seriously carded was when three of my buddies got into a brawl at a Jankara around midnight, and this time it wasn't their fault. A few teachers getting blackout drunk, howling out 80s pop songs and dancing on the sofas and in the next room over, a few curious college girls obviously wanted a taste of the gaijin experience so they got a little flirty. Across the hall, a drunken group of budding uyoku nationalists didn't like these white guys talking to Japanese girls so they confronted my buddies in the hallway and a brawl ensued. Less than 20 seconds later all four or five Japanese boys are unconscious and/or crying on the floor, my buddies are high-fiving each other, staff and police come and my friends were about to be arrested except the girls were wailing to the police that the Japanese instigated the fight and attacked the poor, handsome gaijin boys. One of the punks ended up having to pay restitution to my friend for a minor injury he sustained, although he could've very well hurt himself before the fight, falling off the table in the karaoke room and whacking his head on the table.

But hey, at the end of the night, they got to get drunk, sing shitty songs, beat some ass and on top of that they went home with some phone numbers. That's a win-win if I've ever heard of one.

This is sarcasm or parody, right?? Please be a parody LOL. If this is real, then... no offense but fuck you
 
hmmmm... did you just copy/paste this from a previous post? I kinda remember that story
You and your friends were douchebags by the way, I wish Police had been stricter :)

I might've posted it before as it's one of the great memories of my years in Japan. And we still are douchebags, by the way. Older, fatter, balder, but whenever we're back together again this story comes up and everyone laughs.

We weren't always so lucky with the cops, however. One of my buddies did actual jail time (maybe a month?) for knocking out a couple idiots at some sort of festival. Another was randomly attacked by some drunken guy, whom he then knocked out, and was hauled into the police station and held there all night until he was willing to apologize to the idiot. The things you see on a Saturday night!
 
This is sarcasm or parody, right?? Please be a parody LOL. If this is real, then... no offense but fuck you

Not sarcasm. Not parody. The fact that this behavior surprises you leads me to believe that I'm just fucking old, from a different time and you might've missed that era, the heyday of the eikaiwa. From the mid-90s to early 2000s, NOVA, AEON, GEOS, ECC...these businesses were certainly NOT bringing in the best and brightest the English-speaking world had to offer. I would say the majority of the Americans coming in were douchebag pussy virgins and social rejects, but the Brits and Aussies coming in...man, we were like soul sisters! These guys were the dregs of civilized society, horny scumbags who scraped by and earned a college degree by the skins of their asses and showed up looking for exactly two things: PUSSY and PARTY. It was like an army of fratboys minus the money, nice clothes and rape culture because any guy with a foreign passport could rock up to a club, pull his pants down and a stampede of moaning, drooling junior college gaidai bimbos would be on him like flies on shit. It was like sophomore year at college all over again, except I had a paycheck, a clean apartment and bed and respectable clothes to go out in.

It appears those days are over. For shame, it was a glorious time.
 
I might've posted it before as it's one of the great memories of my years in Japan. And we still are douchebags, by the way. Older, fatter, balder, but whenever we're back together again this story comes up and everyone laughs.

We weren't always so lucky with the cops, however. One of my buddies did actual jail time (maybe a month?) for knocking out a couple idiots at some sort of festival. Another was randomly attacked by some drunken guy, whom he then knocked out, and was hauled into the police station and held there all night until he was willing to apologize to the idiot. The things you see on a Saturday night!

it is possible to have a fun night without causing chaos, disturbing the people around you, and being a general dick. I don’t know why you talk about this like you’re proud of the fond memories... honestly you should be ashamed.
 
Not sarcasm. Not parody. The fact that this behavior surprises you leads me to believe that I'm just fucking old, from a different time and you might've missed that era, the heyday of the eikaiwa. From the mid-90s to early 2000s, NOVA, AEON, GEOS, ECC...these businesses were certainly NOT bringing in the best and brightest the English-speaking world had to offer. I would say the majority of the Americans coming in were douchebag pussy virgins and social rejects, but the Brits and Aussies coming in...man, we were like soul sisters! These guys were the dregs of civilized society, horny scumbags who scraped by and earned a college degree by the skins of their asses and showed up looking for exactly two things: PUSSY and PARTY. It was like an army of fratboys minus the money, nice clothes and rape culture because any guy with a foreign passport could rock up to a club, pull his pants down and a stampede of moaning, drooling junior college gaidai bimbos would be on him like flies on shit. It was like sophomore year at college all over again, except I had a paycheck, a clean apartment and bed and respectable clothes to go out in.

It appears those days are over. For shame, it was a glorious time.

lol! the joy, glitter, and privileged life of eikaiwa teachers... im glad that for once someone see it in a positive way :)
 
I think that the number of instances where cops stops someone only because they are obviously not Japanese is not as large as it is portrayed on the various english language Japan websites. Getting 'gaijin carded' is probably pretty rare, and when it does happen, the cops have a reason other than pure gaijinness. Alcohol, late at night, being in Roppongi or Shibuya, etc. I dont know of anyone who gets asked for his id 'all the time'.

Indeed. And even if some of them would get stopped the cops would realise after just a few sentences that the particular individual speaks native Japanese and just let them go without carding after asking them to get a lamp to their bicycle or not to sit on the parking lot driveway blocking anyone from entering or leaving.

I have talked with tens of not-Japanese-looking Japanese university kids who mostly have spend all of their lives in Japan and none of them have ever been carded; while most confessed of being talked to by the cops by doing stupid shit.
 
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