An Elderly California man, 74, Carrying a typical Swiss Army style pocket knife, was asked by a policeman in a tourist rich Tokyo center if he had a knife when the man stepped into a police box to ask for directions. Not thinking anything of it, he said yes. They arrested him on the spot and hauled him off to jail. Why they asked this question is very strange, but the Japanese police think all foriegners are criminals and treat them as such. Some might argue that this was an unusual case of a rogue cop with little training but, infact, a myriad of testimonies signify it is not unusual police behavior.
In Japan his possession of a small pocketknife, a customary personal item, even allowed on planes by the normally nazi-esk US airport security, is illegal and caused him to be locked away for 10 nights in prison without going before a judge or seeing a lawyer; the man said it was unpleasant and disappointing. No doubt, since in Japan, even though he was a tourist, 74 years old and unable to understand Japanese (they don't speak English in jail), they treated him worse then they do the Japanese mafia. They could simply have confiscated the pocket knife. Twilight Zone, but true.
Lawyers and family members were appauled by the treatment, but according to the UN Human Rights Commission, this is not unusual treatment for tourists and foriegners. (And this is a country that wants to join the UN Security Council and wants to host thousands of tourists and atheletes for the Olympics?!? Wow. Think about it.)
In Japan, 10 days in detention with no lawyer and being harassed, in Japanese, to sign confessions, in Japanese, without explanation or counsel is problematic, though not uncommon.
So, bottom line: Japan really ISN'T the tourist friendly country you might think it is, and if you want to visit someplace, perhaps you should concider Hawaii or Taiwan instead.
1 comment:
i definitely agree that Japan is not the postcard-perfect place for a tourist and it's hard for me to convey that to friends back home.
that kind of situation though, I wonder. perhaps it was just a psycho scenario with that individual policeman combined some severely outdated laws?
i like to think the best of everyone ('-')
You never know though. Perhaps this old man was acting creepy. From my personal experience I've seen policemen be very lenient towards spoiled foreigners who were breaking the law in Nagoya and Osaka so its hard for me to immediately take a side against them. But of course there are individual cops who take advantage of their authority as well, and that happens in every country
Post a Comment