Is it okay to let policeman actually take photo of your zairyu card? I feel uncomfortable because they literally checked my bag and clothes because i slept on a chair like thing near the road that is definetly made for sitting while waiting for eki to open. Is there a possibility that they are trying to connect me to some crime or is it normal? It’s not that i’m mad for checking me because i looked like foreigner. It’s just that i never heard police taking picture of someone’s resident card.
11 comments
Maybe they’re going to send out a hit squad to take care of you…
No problem. Chances are no one will ever look at that picture ever again unless you are sleeping on that bench every day or is involved in a crime. Usually they write your information on a notepad (foreigner and Japanese alike) but I’ve seen them taking pictures too
I don’t have any real knowledge on this topic but would guess they are just taking the photo “just in case”. Like if there was a bombing or knife attack a few hours later in the area, yeah I can imagine you might be a potential person of interest for a few hours?
Or much more likely, it’s an easy (thought not ideal) way of showing they are meeting the zairyu card check quota. (Or maybe if someone complains about a foreigner sleeping on a bench, and the head polic chief says “Hey, this was your patrol, there were complaints about foreigners sleeping outside the eki. Did you check that that person was legally in the country?” and the patrolman can whip out the photo and say “Yep. See still good, chief.”)
I know it’s not ideal given the potential for identity theft, maybe keep your eye open for anything weird about that (I don’t know any credit check systems in Japan unfortunately).
You can take picture of their identification card as well. Tit-for-tat.
They checked your clothes and bag (you let them) and you’re worried that they took a pic of your card?
If it were real cops, no issues.
I got into an alteration with lots of young Japanese guys at a night club in a local town when I was in my 20s. I was teaching English then and some girl from a different English school attacked the DJ scratching his face. They thought we were friends and demanded my Zairyu card to take a photo. I was surrounded by at least 20 of them so I reluctantly let them. Totally regretted it yet thankfully nothing came of it.
They have right to check all this and if you were required to go back to the police station and have your card scanned you’d be obliged to go. So not sure why you’d be worried they took a photo and left you alone
Just FYI, you didn’t have to consent to a search of your bag/clothes, no matter how forcefully they may have asked.
My neighbor is a cop and I asked him about this after one of the last three million times it’s been asked here.
Cops used to write down everything in their little books, so they could fill out their daily interaction reports at end of shift.
Enter 2023 where people can just snap a pic, and not waste time scribbling everything into a book.
I bet they are gonna beat the meat to your picture in the card lol.
Just curious, I thought there was an app now that could scan a chip inside the card due to fake zairyu cards going around. I wonder why they didn’t just scan it?