does the staying quiet, not answering their questions and ask for a lawyer approach work ? Cause I've heard japanese police can just keep you in custody forever, do you really need to answer their questions?
You seem to misunderstand a key point here: the detention is actually lawful.
They can detain you for up to 23 days. No arrest means no access to a lawyer. Don’t say a fucking word and don’t sign anything. They want you to crack
Just answer the questions and make it simple for everyone so you can go out and live your life asap. Yes there is arbitrary detention and it sucks but you’ll always be on the loser side anyway so just play along and make it quick for everyone.
There are also a few relevant threads in r/JapanLife if you do a search.
They can detain you for 23 days without charge, during which time they’ll try to get a confession out of you. If you don’t confess and there’s no more evidence linked to you, they will let you go.
…unless they really don’t like you, in which case they will detain you on a different charge for another 23 days.
Open google translate and ask why are they arresting you for.
Japan police isn’t America police.
If you get arrested and are a foreigner confess (because let’s be honest, if you were arrested you obviously were blatantly breaking an obvious law) and get the deportation over with. Otherwise they’ll keep you in jail for a long time until the trial where you will inevitably lose and be deported.
Best advice is to not get arrested in a foreign country. I know, sounds self explanatory, but really, don’t put yourself in a situation where you’ll be at risk of arrest.
Don’t drink in excess, and don’t pick fights even because even if you win, you lose when you’re in handcuffs. (Unless you run fast?)
Again, don’t get arrest, but if somehow you manage to, don’t speak. Don’t out yourself. Be polite. Think about where you went wrong.
“Need answer fast”
Am not an expert, but I’ll go with “My embassy please…”
They aren’t going to allow you access however, but based on your initial condition that the arrest was unlawful, that would be the process I would take.
They can detain you for 23 days. However, (supposedly) they are also able to rinse and repeat that immediately upon your ‘release’ (if they have a new charge?), I’m not sure if there is a limit to this, but I’m quite sure they cannot continue to detain your corpse upon your death – which will eventually happen, someday.
If you have been arrested (Which I am to understand might not be the same as being detained), they must present you to a judge and things will progress from there. They cannot keep you under arrest ‘forever’ without moving forward.
*Hopefully*, when enough time has passed (and before you die), someone would notice your absence and bring it up to your embassy to request for access to you. It probably won’t happen right away, but with enough pressure over time, they may eventually be allowed to see you.
That said, from my previous interactions with the police, their investigations have been extremely thorough prior to initiating an arrest. The decision to arrest was not made by a single officer, but (from what I could tell) escalated though at least 2 levels “higher”, who were presented with the ‘evidence’ collected, before the instruction to arrest came back down.
If you did do something illegal/wrong, I would probably keep requesting for an interpreter instead, and (try to) make sure the facts are accurate.
What sort of unlawful arrest are you thinking happens here?
it depends on what your goal is.
if you want to get out of this as early as possible and you didnt do it its best to work with them together to find the truth.
Get a lawyer and your embassy on the phone.
What?! Are they looking to arrest a lot of tourist in Japan? Is that a normal thing, should we be worried that there’s a high chance they’ll randomly detain tourists at any time for random reasons, like just the way someone looks? I mean should we not be enjoying Japan and on high alert that we’ll be pulled at random for anything? Is this a thing? I really don’t want to be yanked randomly as a tourist if I’m not doing anything wrong, will have constant anxiety and fear if I were to go there. Should I hire a lawyer prior to going?
15 comments
Asking for a friend, of course
You seem to misunderstand a key point here: the detention is actually lawful.
They can detain you for up to 23 days. No arrest means no access to a lawyer. Don’t say a fucking word and don’t sign anything. They want you to crack
Just answer the questions and make it simple for everyone so you can go out and live your life asap. Yes there is arbitrary detention and it sucks but you’ll always be on the loser side anyway so just play along and make it quick for everyone.
There was this interesting thread a few days ago – although it’s more about being questionned than being arrested: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1byncbb/what_can_foreign_residents_do_if_stopped_for/
There are also a few relevant threads in r/JapanLife if you do a search.
They can detain you for 23 days without charge, during which time they’ll try to get a confession out of you. If you don’t confess and there’s no more evidence linked to you, they will let you go.
…unless they really don’t like you, in which case they will detain you on a different charge for another 23 days.
Open google translate and ask why are they arresting you for.
Japan police isn’t America police.
If you get arrested and are a foreigner confess (because let’s be honest, if you were arrested you obviously were blatantly breaking an obvious law) and get the deportation over with. Otherwise they’ll keep you in jail for a long time until the trial where you will inevitably lose and be deported.
Best advice is to not get arrested in a foreign country.
I know, sounds self explanatory, but really, don’t put yourself in a situation where you’ll be at risk of arrest.
Don’t drink in excess, and don’t pick fights even because even if you win, you lose when you’re in handcuffs. (Unless you run fast?)
Again, don’t get arrest, but if somehow you manage to, don’t speak. Don’t out yourself. Be polite. Think about where you went wrong.
“Need answer fast”
Am not an expert, but I’ll go with “My embassy please…”
They aren’t going to allow you access however, but based on your initial condition that the arrest was unlawful, that would be the process I would take.
They can detain you for 23 days. However, (supposedly) they are also able to rinse and repeat that immediately upon your ‘release’ (if they have a new charge?), I’m not sure if there is a limit to this, but I’m quite sure they cannot continue to detain your corpse upon your death – which will eventually happen, someday.
If you have been arrested (Which I am to understand might not be the same as being detained), they must present you to a judge and things will progress from there. They cannot keep you under arrest ‘forever’ without moving forward.
*Hopefully*, when enough time has passed (and before you die), someone would notice your absence and bring it up to your embassy to request for access to you. It probably won’t happen right away, but with enough pressure over time, they may eventually be allowed to see you.
That said, from my previous interactions with the police, their investigations have been extremely thorough prior to initiating an arrest. The decision to arrest was not made by a single officer, but (from what I could tell) escalated though at least 2 levels “higher”, who were presented with the ‘evidence’ collected, before the instruction to arrest came back down.
If you did do something illegal/wrong, I would probably keep requesting for an interpreter instead, and (try to) make sure the facts are accurate.
What sort of unlawful arrest are you thinking happens here?
it depends on what your goal is.
if you want to get out of this as early as possible and you didnt do it its best to work with them together to find the truth.
Get a lawyer and your embassy on the phone.
What?! Are they looking to arrest a lot of tourist in Japan? Is that a normal thing, should we be worried that there’s a high chance they’ll randomly detain tourists at any time for random reasons, like just the way someone looks? I mean should we not be enjoying Japan and on high alert that we’ll be pulled at random for anything? Is this a thing? I really don’t want to be yanked randomly as a tourist if I’m not doing anything wrong, will have constant anxiety and fear if I were to go there. Should I hire a lawyer prior to going?