I recently got pulled over by the cops while driving and they told me they were going to search my car. I asked them why they were stopping me in particular and they said I was suspicious because I wasn’t staring at their cop car. I’m honestly not too familiar with Japanese laws but is that enough to warrant getting pulled over here? I was so caught off guard that it just made me laugh and I was yeah ok whatever, but can I just say bye and leave next time? Cause god knows if I look at their car they’re going to stop me for looking at them too.
Edit: Can’t imagine why so many people are downvoting in silence lmao. If you disagree / don’t like something im saying speak the fuck up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/v8p9ga/japanese_police_detainment/
29 comments
I have some stoner friends that successfully resisted vehicle searches. Being foreign might be different, as there is some debate if they have rights. I think one story had sever backup cars being called, but refusing worked. I don’t think you can just drive off though.
Smile and wave next time. If they stop you, tell them your dad is a cop, you love the police, and you wave at every one you see. Then ask if you can get a selfie with them.
I’ve watched on television as they follow around real cops who conduct such stops. On one stop, the cop said he picked the guy out because he looked at the police car as they drove past. On another stop, the same cop said he picked the guy because he *didn’t* look at the police car as they drove past.
They’re just on a fucking fishing expedition, hoping to find something.
If it’s any consolation to you, they do the same shit to Japanese people all the time. Come sit in the taxi pool at Haneda Airport’s international terminal most days and you can see the police pulling that shit on people who just happen to be sitting at the curb of the terminal building waiting to pick someone up. I’ve seen it drag on for an hour or two.
I’ve shared this story on here before, but I witnessed a car being stolen one night in Ibaraki. I called the cops to report it and they ended up questioning and photographing me for four hours. I met the owner of the car the following morning and he told me that until he talked them out of it, the cops had considered me the prime suspect because they found it suspicious that I called them to report the crime.
Police here aren’t big on using their brains.
Legally? I have no idea.
I’ve found that the cops here are in two groups:
1) decent cops: do their job and don’t hassle you for random stuff like a car search unless its a situation where your car is similar to a stolen car or something
2) wanker cops: having a shitty day and wanna take out their frustration or just be a sick by hassling you for a search.
I see to run into #2 cops a lot 15 years ago but not anymore. I used to smile, agree to what they said, compliment their English and bullshit how tough it must be to be a cop. They back up really quickly and let you go with no troubles.
They’re just bored.
They switch between checking the bikes and then harassing the drivers.
I was at a camping store the other day looking at very small Victorinox knives. I actually don’t care about the blade, but the scissors, screwdrivers, etc. are useful, and to be honest I liked the look of it. I knew the length was under the legal limit, but I asked the store staff just to be sure. He laughed while he answered: “It’s legal, but if the cop who stops you is in a bad mood, it won’t matter.”
That’s funny, I got stopped once and their excuse was that “I was suspicious *because* I was looking at them. I guess they don’t need much of a valid reason.
If it’s 職務質問, it’s unenforced (任意). So, next time, ask them if it’s 任意. If they say yes, in principle you can tell them you don’t have the time and they should let you go. If not, whatever card they pull, you can ask if it’s 強制.
I don’t think they can enforce you to cooperate as long as you provide reasonable and consistent justification on why you can’t.
AHHAHA oh I’ve been waiting for this one. Something is very off about the police in Japan. When studying abroad as a teen in Japan I was told to keep my passport on me because I could be randomly checked at any time.
Anecdote: One of my best friends studied abroad at the same time in another prefecture. She was at a shopping mall with her native friend from school, both of them wearing school uniforms. A man stalked them for quite some distance before her friend spotted a policeman and told him the situation. The policeman called out the man and he answered that he was just watching out for the girl and wanted to make sure she wasn’t lost. Policeman said sounds legit and the man continued to stalk the pair.
My friend was so scared that she did not leave her host family’s house for two days. “Low crime rate” because issues are just swept under the rug.
Not related to the topic but I’ve been fortunate to have never been stopped in Japan yet. 6 years in.
3 in ishikawa, 3 in Kyoto.
I consider myself fortune to not have to go through the stuff you guys did. However, I am firmly committed to speaking pure English if they do. They’re gonna work for every second they talk to me.
You ever read the Keisatsu Shogan? It’s like a guidebook to the philosophy of Japanese policing. It’s wild in an otherwise western-style liberal democracy.
“The navy and the army are like soldiers who protect the country
from invaders. The police is like medicine to treat internal illness.
Enemy states and other external threats are like violent and menacing
thugs. If such individuals try to attack you, you must protect yourself
by wielding your sword with ease using your healthy and strong
muscles. If you neglect your body and leave it in an unhealthy and
unfit state, you will feel too weak to use your sword, no matter how
excellent it is, and end up being killed without even putting up a fight.
This shows that the health of a person and that of a nation are one and
the same, so, to stay healthy, daily treatment is essential. For this
reason, an expansion of police operations does nothing but greatly
promote Japan’s overall health as a nation.
3. A nation is like a family. The Government is like parents, and the
people are like children. The police play the role of a nanny who looks
after children. In a country like Japan, where modern civilization is yet
to take hold, the people must be regarded as young children. To look
after them, a nanny’s service is absolutely essential. For this reason, we
must treat the establishment of a police service as a priority task for
Japan.”
ok wow I’ve seen many random foreigner police stops and all but this one’s reasoning is out of this world. these fucking nutcases lmao
I’ve had this happen too.
A lot of people on here will refuse to believe that cops here stop random people.
I’m not sure there’s much you can do tbh. I tried to refuse the search and it didn’t work lol.
I am not sure what intentions you have at the moment, but if you still wanted to do something you might try another avenue. You could possibly say that the unreasonable search of your vehicle has given you mental stress resulting in lack of sleep and productivity which directly affects your work, etc.
I am no professional though,but I see these cases from time to time in the news and I feel this route is effective if you want an apology; however, it seems to take a long time.
You should know that in Japan, the law puts the burden on the accused. You are guilty until proven innocent, the inverse of the west. The police system is designed to look at things like “willingness to cooperate” within the first 24 hours of being accused very seriously as an indication of guilt or innocence. Driving off would definitely be the wrong move.
I don’t like it any more than you do, but trust me, you do not want to get arrested in Japan. They have a 99% conviction and place very high priority on saving face.
Advice from my friends in Japan: If you want less attention from police, shave! LOL
I’m not against the cops in any way, but my personal experience with them as a foreigner living in japan is piss poor. Girl gets taken into car in front of my house, probably yakuza, at 4am. Police said thank you and never showed up.
Family issues, they didn’t listen to my side of the story and told me I was wrong after being physically assaulted and threatened. They said I need to speak more japanese and provide more for my family since I live in japan. Totally off the subject I called about. I felt they sided with others cus im not japanese.
People selling weed outside my house. They told me to call the military police even though it was japanese….
I mean, my father always told me, ‘common sense ain’t so common’
Everyone is an individual, but can we be a little more vigilant?
I would imagine you’re getting downvoted because this post started as an earnest question about your rights in a police search but you went on to say in the comments Japanese people wouldn’t help a screaming woman being raped and the government is basically as bad as North Korea lol
Didn’t stare at their car???? This is the most bs thing I have ever heard and I’ve been driving in Japan for 3 years now. I even got fined but never ever was I told that it was because I didn’t StArE aT tHe CAr lol
Damn! so they search ppl for not giving them attention? haha
Cops here have nothing better to do. A friend of mine (Japanese) owns a shop and he sometimes parks his car in the front of it to load goods. he was told to move his car by a cop so he did. That same cop now off duty on a different day, berated him in front of customers when he saw it again, he asked my friend to give him his bosses information so he could have him fired. Was even more pissed when he told him he’s the boss and told him his business would surely fail lol
…anyway, it turns out the police arbitrarily have been pulling foreigners over. [Here](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2020/01/20/issues/remain-calm-when-stopped-police-japan/) is a news article on it, and what to do when it happen.
Japan (like Singapore) is functionally a benign police state. The police have almost unlimited search and seizure power in Japan. “His apartment smelled like gaijin drugs when I was at the front door” is all they need say to tear your place apart from top to bottom. This is almost guaranteed to never happen to your dwelling if you aren’t antagonistic with the Japanese police. Vehicle searches however are something they’ll just do on a whim with the flimsiest of justifications, especially if you aren’t ethnically Japanese.
Their police, while professional, are also exceptionally racist. I’d recommend having cameras in your car for if you ever get in a crash. If a Japanese person hits you and tells the police that you ran into them the police and the courts WILL NOT believe your side of the story unless you have direct forensic evidence exonerating you. If salary man uses your car to commit suicide you MUST have a camera to show that you attempted to stop and evade but that the person intentionally threw themselves at your car. If you hit another gaijin they’ll listen to your story. If you hit a Japanese pedestrian you are screwed if you don’t have camera footage and or other Japanese people backing your story.
Purely anecdotal, but at one of the stations nearest to me, I’ve seen the usual group of 3,4, sometimes 5 cops surrounding someone in that politely invasive way. The “someone” always looks like what you’d categorise as “other Asian”, i.e. Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, etc. Don’t recall ever seeing them do it with a caucasian. Doesn’t mean they don’t, but I haven’t seen it.
Can’t speak for pulling over cars, as I don’t drive.
The police here are a joke. They most likely pulled you over because you’re foreign and looked “suspicious.”
I honestly think that other than giving directions, Japanese police have nothing to do, so they try to find anything that might make them look busy. Just be polite so they let you go as quickly as possible.
I’ve had my car searched multiple times just for existing in a parking lot of a particular 7-11. Once, I had my car searched in my *apartment building’s parking lot*.
Basically, I committed the sin of checking the wheels of my new-ish foreign performance car whilst being brown. Two nearby cops came up to me, asking me why I was looking at my car. I told them it was mine, as I unlocked the car. They then forced me to prove it was mine (Shakensho, etc.) AND that I lived where I lived by looking at my Zairyuu card.
Since then, however, I’ve moved to the city and I’ve yet to interact with a police officer. I think the issue was that I was a dark skinned dude living in a fairly upmarket apartment building and driving an expensive looking car in the suburbs of a small town. The only other people who looked remotely like me were the Brazilian factory workers, and they lived in different parts of town (but not that far away, still).
I got pulled over once and the cop was so weirded out by me being a foreigner that he kept me for 40 minutes trying to figure out how to fill out the paperwork. He called my wife three times to help clarify things. He finally let me go when my wife asked him if he didn’t have better things to do.
A cop came to my school recently during a routine patrol to ask for numbers he can call if there’s ever an emergency/crime in the room. We had a great chat. Told me his daughter loves English and I gave him a pamphlet. 🙂 Not all police are assholes. They’re mostly just people doing their job in my experience.
People downvote posts and don’t owe you an explanation.