How to keep safe from stalkers?

6 comments

1. You should change up your routes from day to day and never go back to your home by the same route that you took on the first half of your run. You want to make it hard for someone to be waiting for you.

   There are a few simple self defense techniques to get out of someone’s grip, and it’s worth learning how to do that on YouTube.

   Pepper spray is not illegal as long as you have a legitimate reason to carry it. If you explain to any police who question you what you explained above, you should be fine on that end.

2. Pepper spray is not illegal as long as it’s kept indoors, but if you take it outside it may be considered a misdemeanor unless you have a valid reason to carry it.
   https://izumi-keiji.jp/column/houritsu-gimon/goshin-spray

3. Route changing, as has been suggested, is probably the best form of prevention. Especially when close to your house, zig-zag, or circle around the general block instead of sd making a bee-line for home. On the plus side (if there’s any) it’ll make your run a little more interesting with different routes instead of the same one every time.

4. If you carry your phone you can share your live location to family or friends on WhatsApp. Garmin likewise has a similar program on their watches for live tracking. I wear a pair of openrun shokz so that I can listen to the surroundings during my nighttime runs.

5. You might feel safer if you carry a whistle?im not kidding. Carry one in your pocket whenever you walk in dark alley.

   This also helps when an earthquake happens and you are trapped somewhere under the rubbish.

6. It’s probably a PI (I just learned about this recently while researching background checks, but here’s what I’ve found out).

   In Japan, there are no official background checks, so companies/schools often resort to using PIs to investigate staffers.

   Here are some companies that explain stuff in English:

   https://jp.usembassy.gov/services/list-of-private-detectives/

   A lot of this info comes from the websites of “Japan PI,” Tokyo Private Eye,” “Privin Network,” and “ICSWorld.”

   It seems that PIs in Japan do services not normally done in other countries. They do blackball investigations, harassment investigations, etc. They even do “anti-social forces” investigations to see if there are any gangs or undesirable entities operating in the area.

   Off course, a PI is basically a stalker for hire, so it comes as no surprise some companies/institutes probably use them to bully and harass employees. Like, imagine having uncomfortable social interactions everyday and not knowing why? Apparently some PIs will put GPS trackers on people’s cars, and requisition their ISP data, too.

   As you can imagine, this can also backfire for companies and PI firms. The GPS trackers might leave small scratches on cars, which, if discovered, cops often prosecute heavily. If they cross the line and start spreading the data they gather about you willy-nilly, they can also fall afoul of defamation laws. In addition, if it turns out the client was sexually motivated, there could also be stalking implications.

   I suspect, however, foreigners might be easy targets. Costs are pretty cheap, and there’s nothing preventing any rando from sicking a PI on you. PIs are usually retired LOEs also, so they have police connections. So, when people say “call the police,” that probably won’t work, because PIs will often check beforehand with police so as not to get arrested.

   Anyway, I definitely hope you get closure. I’ve had PIs sent to cafes I frequent to see what I was doing with my paid leave lol. Not a pleasant experience. They are also not very subtle often, which makes me think the intent is more to intimidate than to fact-find. A thin line in Japan, eh?

   Edit: “thin line”