There was a stop that I may or may not have very briefly came to a complete stop after checking for cars and pedestrians. After turning I see a police officer running towards my car from 70 meters away. He stops me and ask me to turn and go to a parking lot. I thought this was just random check I always hear about on here. There is another cop there, who is older and the younger cop who stopped me. He then tells me I didn’t stop and they ask for my license and zairyo card. I didn’t think I was gonna get a ticket because I thought I stopped even if it was just for a split second and they would tell me be more careful and stop longer. He asked me some more questions and compliments my Japanese. The older guy comes over and hands me a paper with was the citation. It was 7000 yen. Not really that bad but I have never had a ticket in my 14 years of driving and I just had 6 years of no violations with a Japanese license so next renewal I was hoping to get the gold license. So I tell tell the young cop I am pretty sure I stopped even if it was just for a brief second. He said he saw that wheels didn’t stop. So I told him maybe it looked that way because he was far away. He said I didn’t stop. So I told him I would like confirm with my dash cam. He asked if I can display on the screen. I said no because its need an SD card readers. So he said he thought I was going at least 1km/h. We go about doing this but I kept insisting I stopped ever so briefly and if it’s counts if I stopped even for a portion of a second. He asked again if I can display the video on the screen and I said no again it only records. He starts talking about accidents in the area and I agree they are bad and I tell him again I’m pretty sure I stopped even if it was just a portion of a second asked if they can confirm it by the checking the SD card. I’m pretty sure he said it could be worse if he checked my SD card, implying the fine might go up or something but could have been a misunderstanding on my end. I tell them again I think I stopped and would like to check the SD card. At this point the older guy taps the younger cop on the shoulder and says something to him. He tells me because I’ve been in Japan awhile and my Japanese is good they won’t charge me this time. And he takes back the ticket. I apologized for the trouble and told them I will stop for a full second from now on.
They took back the wrote up ticket and took it back but it has all my information and I still feel like I’m gonna get in trouble somehow. I didn’t sign anything but I’m hoping this doesn’t come and bite me in the ass somehow. At the same time I can’t believe I had a ticket in my hand and talked my way out of it which probably wouldn’t have been possible without a dash cam which I only paid 5000 yen for.
Anyways thanks for reading drive safe!
7 comments
Your 日本語 is clearly お上手！
Amen!
That’s because you have to admit it for them to issue the fine. I had similar happen to me with the guy trying to get me to admit to going through a red light, but when I went through the light it was just switching from green to amber. He was overzealous and I stuck to my guns and he had to let me go. Even did the same thing with telling me my dashcam evidence is likely to make it worse. Lying bastard.
So you have to be either very good in Japanese to impress them, or very bad to make them give up. I know my limits, so I guess I’m taking the second option.
So… Upon checking your dashcam, how long did you stop for?
You might also like to archive that portion of the footage, just in case.
I guess I should get a drive recorder for my motorcycle.
Your wall of text got me to not read any of it. Anyway, I hope it involves you “talking your way out of it” not by being smooth, but by really pushing the “japanese wakarimasen hontou ni” schtick!