So last night I was skateboarding around my station with some Japanese friends when we stopped to have a couple of beers at an open area with benches a little bit away from the station. We were approached by two police officers who started questioning us. The second one of them realized I was a foreigner he stopped talking to my friends and asked me to produce my Zairyu card and started playing 20 questions. Whole situation switched from talking to all of us to literally just me lol. I more or less acted like I didn’t know Japanese and In the end they just wrote down the information on my card and warned me they better not stop me twice. My question is this. How seriously do I need to avoid being stopped again? I want to skate with my friends but I don’t want to find myself in actual trouble.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/119ndsg/do_i_need_to_worry_about_having_my_zairyu_card/
5 comments
They probably stopped you cuz you aren’t allowed to skateboard on the streets/just anywhere. Just stick to the skateparks and you should have no problems.
I used to play roller hockey and I would sometimes practice at the park near my house cuz it’s paved. However, nope, that’s not a park designated for skating so the police showed up and told me.
It’s fine.
They use lots of different pretenses to take down information. I was at Narita waiting for my mom’s plane to come in, just sitting and eating a sandwich and they asked me for my card and said they needed to write down my information for “increased security measures.” I skate too, and I’ve gone right past cops numerous times in my neighborhood and they’ve never bothered me. I think it really depends on the cop and their mood. It’s best to stay polite and stop skating if they tell you to, regardless.
It happened to us once because of making too much noise in the park. Nothing really happened since
Urban Japan was made for toddlers and old people. Anyone else is expected to be working. There are very few places where skateboarders can practice. I don’t board but I raised boys here and I always felt that the city fathers were negligent in providing very little thought into supporting teens.