Was stopped in frisked on suspicion by Japanese police searched me and everything, asked me for my ID and wrote down my details. Is this Normal? They didn’t find anything and they let me go. Being in the military, will they let the military know that they stopped me?
39 comments
This happens all the time and afaik is not recorded anywhere.
I have seen this happen once. At Osu Kannon in Nagoya. The police was actively stopping Japanese college age students. No checking of ID though just frisking and checking inside their bags.
Normal.
They will ask for ID, sometimes ask what you doing in Japan and where you work.
They might ask where you going, why you carrying the contents in your bag etc. If you refuse to answer they can detain you for 20 days or so for no reason.
I had my first encounter in all my many years here with a cop last week.
I was walking by a koban and the cop came up on me to flex and commanded “おはようございます”. In reflexively yelled back “おはようございます” and kept walking.
Ain’t nothing you can do about it anyways. Part of living here.
I got stopped once as I walked from my house to the convenience store. All of 80 meters or so. Didn’t have my zairyu (then: gaijin card) card on me. Was put in the back of the police car, fingerprinted there and then, and made to sign a 誓約書 saying that I wouldn’t commit this most grievous of offences again. This was back in 2009/10.
I got my PR back with zero issues in 2015, so I wouldn’t worry too much.
You don’t need to subject to the illegal search, they can only do it if you voluntarily agree to it. Before showing your resident card to them, ask them to show you their badge numbers and names. Write all down. Don’t speak Japanese. Call the main police station to make sure that they are real police officers or call their English number 03-3501-0110 and say that you are being stopped and harassed by people dressed in some kind of funny uniform, and they seem like fake officials to you. Enjoy wasting their time. Whip out your phone and record. While they are wasting their time with you, they can’t stop others for the illegal search. File a complaint at a main police station after, stating their names and badge numbers. If everyone would do that, they’d stop harassing people for no reason.
The police in the town I live in did that to me 3 or 4 times before they started to remember me
Happened to me like 5 times already
I was stopped and frisked riding my motorcycle in Aomori late at night on grounds that my bike matched the description of one used in a cell phone theft. I was in the air force. They took my info, apologized and let me go after. If they did report it to the military I never heard about it.
u/Aquafished you can tell them no they can’t search your items. Show them your military ID but don’t give it to them because they may try to take a photo of it which is not allowed. Explain in English that they are not allowed to seize your ID or take a photo of it. If they don’t understand ask for a translator. This situation is only applicable to those who are SOFA status. If the situation is escalating then call PMO THEY WILL GET SJA involved but you can not be detained for 20 days like others have mentioned.
Is this like a Tokyo thing? I’ve only ever seen the one officer, and never seen any speed cameras either, I’m actually surprised at the lack of policing/ surveillance in JP.
I have never been stopped as a foreigner, however I did see a lot of locals getting stopped and lectured about
riding bikes where they should walk them and being questioned about ownership.
I do understand that some people do get stopped, but it really does only take a couple of minutes, same
if we were in our home country. Unless you lived in a brutal police state.
[deleted]
I got pulled in at Tokyo station once on the way to Hop a shinkansen to visit family friends in Kyoto.
Normally I dress more discreetly but it was a hot and humid day.
Tank top, tattoos, muscular ethnically androgynous foreigner.
My gf at the time was visiting from ireland, a petite gal born with diabetes, so I had a backup of insulin and syringes in my bag alongside a glucose shot.
They really had a fit when they found it in back and brought the kit into the office I was being interviewed.
Of course My gf was just visiting at the time and had gotten onto the train in the confusion, no cell phone.
She was able to contact me via email and call from someone else’s phone. To clear things up.
I missed my train. Once they found my passport and realized what was happening a gentleman came in and apologized for everything.
He not only got me onto another train without paying but he was so apologetic that he offered to travel to Kyoto with me and buy us dinner.
The two officers who had been grilling me (I say this in jest, they were mostly pleasant. Succinct but skeptical at most) for nearly an hour were outside of the room bowing.
It hadn’t been a horrific experience, and I knew it would all work out, but obviously they were looking for something and I met the profile because I was hurried to and from the platform pretty quickly.
Overall it was just another story and oddly enough ended up winning me some points with the girl I was showing around.
Amusingly I did NOT get a business card from anyone.
I live in the boondocks so I almost never see coppers. I have gotten stopped at checkpoints for drug-driving. But I have a full Japanese family in the car so the cops just let me go in like 1 minute of chit-chat. However, I have been in Tokyo and Osaka and was asked to see in my pockets. Dont do anything illegal and your fine. The coppers are nice in Japan, unlike other countries.
I don’t get how many of you get stopped so often.
I’ve been in Tokyo for 6 years and the only time I’ve been stopped is when I did an illegal right turn on my bike. And even then, the only thing they said to me is “That’s illegal don’t do it pls”
this has happened to my husband (military) a few times and they claimed he ‘matched a description’ which i personally think its bologna. we live far away from base. theres not many white people around here and my husband has very specific features. they did not contact his command any of the times
I’ve only been stopped for walking while foreign once, in the middle of a weekday in Akihabara bizarrely enough. Not exactly a hotbed of foreign crime apart from all the duty free stores I guess. Just had to show my ID though. When I called the cops on my Japanese neighbour abusing his wife one night they spent ages questioning me about my job though, a lot longer than they did checking on my neighbour…
This reminds me of about a year ago, saw a guy in Ebisu (Tokyo) being questioned by two police at the busy intersection, he has his phone in their face recording them and kept repeating the same thing over and over “I am a American citizen, you have no power over me, I did not break any laws, I demand you speak English to me!!”.
He probably said that like 5 times in 20 seconds (I was waiting for the light to change).
He looked at me and said “please record them, I am a American! Please!!” (I’m a white guy as well so he was likely hoping I’d stick up for him).
I ignored him and walked off, the cops were looking at him like he was crazy.
Ironically just saw a TikToker with a selfie stick being asked for a bag check. She played the victim card “Why do you wanna see my bag?! I’m not dangerous.”
She got away with saying she had panties in her bag and they let her go. She stuck the selfie-stick in their face even after they told her not to record them.
So…. I guess, just tell them you don’t want them to see your panties and you can get away with anything.
Happen to me once when I ride my bicycle to home after work, they said that they need to check it because there are a lot of bicycle thieve lately.
What they said was offensive but the tone was cool and trying to make me not panic so I take it as a normal frisk
Been here over 20 years, never been stopped once.
Did you frisk back? It’s the only way to assert dominance in a position like this. Or pee on their bush so they know your scent 🤷♂️
Yeah it happens. No worries
Totally normal. And legal. Welcome to racial profiling.
Spread your cheeks & lift your sack
I had a friend that worked at an elementary school. She didn’t have her own bicycle, so they let her use one of the school’s. She was stopped almost every day because they thought she stole it. It got so bad that she actually just decided to start walking. (Money was tight, for those who are wondering why she didn’t just buy her own!)
Nothing to worry about, mr. throwaway.
I’ve never been stopped randomly. I called the police about an ongoing noise complaint, rather than follow up on the complaint they decided to start questioning me. I got angry and asked why they were questioning me and not following up on the reason I called. They quickly decided they didn’t need my info. Don’t take their shit
It’s especially pleasant when they don’t use gloves
9 years in Tokyo. Been stopped over a dozen times.
Do you look suspicious?
I was stopped when I was a tourist. Dressed nicely on my way for dinner. I wasn’t carrying my passport but they were polite, I allowed them to search my things. They let me go after finding my pikachu pokemon card in my wallet. All seemed innocent enough.
I recently saw a tiktok of a women who was stopped and politely asked. When they asked to search her bag she refused, they asked if there was something in there she didn’t want them to see, she said “yes, my pantsu”. They all laughed, the officers bowed and left pretty promptly.
Definitely let your command know. Don’t want a surprise njp
I was parked in a parking lot of a Don Quixote. My friend was inside buying things for her mom who had suddenly needed to come stay with her do to a family emergency. I was literally sitting in the car waiting for her. It was after midnight and the Don Quixote is a couple blocks off Kabukicho. Had two cops search my car. Check and call in my ID. I’m a middle aged professional, was wearing a suit. One guy was quite apologetic the other was intent on being the bad cop.
Another time I was parked in Kabukicho, sitting in the car waiting for a friend to arrive to see a movie. A cop car drove by a couple times. I was in a worse mood that day so when they came the third time I almost immediately accused them of discrimination. Sitting in a car is not suspicious. They briefly claimed they didn’t know I was a foreigner until I pointed out I had noticed them drive by me 2 times previously. Then you could see the cogs in their head turning and calculating that it wasn’t worth it to trouble me and left.
I’m not a Japan bashed. Japan has been good to me. But don’t let anyone in this thread convince you otherwise: they see your foreignness first and foremost in any situation.
In 13 years, I’ve only been stopped twice. Once for riding a bike with no lights way back in 2012 in Nagasaki. Cop lost his shit when he lit me up and saw that I was foreign. The second time was years after in Hokkaido for driving in a lane that flipped between normal and buses only depending on the time of day, just after I got my license. Again, I still remember how anxious the cop that pulled me was when he saw that I was foreign. I’ve never been arbitrarily stopped.
Then again, I’m 5.7, white as snow, skinny as shit, and more often than not suited up for work.
One of my 6ft+ muscle-bound casually dressed mates gets stopped fairly regularly. Does lend some weight to the whole being profiled hypothesis.
You’re don’t for. They gon get ya
They always ask about your employer, but in theory they only contact that employer if you are actually charged with a crime.
I have always told them I am an independent, self-employed, freelance tutor not working for any particular company, which is at least partly true. You may notice multiple redundancies in that sentence; this is because they *keep asking* no matter how many times you tell them there is no company to contact or how you explain to them that there is no no company to contact.
An actual conversation I have had with Japanese police, translated into English:
Cop: Where are you employed?
Que: I am a private tutor.
Cop: At what private tutoring company are you employed?
Que: I am not employed by a private tutoring company; I am an independent tutor.
Cop: I see, independently working for what company?
Que: I am not working for a company, I am self-employed.
Cop: Self-employed by whom?
Que: By myself. I work in people’s homes, public halls, cafes, etc. and not for a company.
Cop: Ohh…. ahhh… soo….. I should just write down private tutor?
Que: Yes.
Cop: And you are not employed by a company?
Que: *actually I don’t remember the rest as I was in a blind rage by this point*
I got stopped once on my sister in law’s bike. I was riding all over the place to get the smoothest parts. They thought I was pissed. Didn’t look to good that my bike was registered to a J chick with a different name. They let me go. Fairs fair in this case.