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Getting arrested in Japan

sundaicity.com

201–210 of 359 posts

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is that the US is merely ahead of Europe and Europe will catch up to the US in this regard. Just give it 20 to 30 years.

Why do you believe mantaining an acceptable level of peacefulness requires torture?

I don’t accept your premise that the Japanese system is torture.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#202
The Ministry for State Security in former East Germany had cells they'd dissappear people into. If you ignore the physical torture they employed in the earlier years, the actual cells themselves were somewhat more comfortable than what the Japanese got.

The Stasi had beds, some sense of privacy through proper doors, and an hour a day one might spend outside in a small courtyard to get some sunlight.

However the level of psychological torture (sleep deprivation, hours of standing/sitting in a prescribed posture, hourly checks, ...) appears to be milder in Japan. The Stasi could take that pretty far once they weren't allowed to use physical torture anymore.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#204

Something as small as getting into a heated argument in public, accidentally taking an item you didn’t pay for, overstaying a visa, or even grabbing someone else’s umbrella or bike thinking it was yours can escalate further than you could imagine and have you arrested before you’ve even had a chance to explain. Is this actually true or just fearmongering? I mean really, no chance to explain? Sounds as dumb as being f…

> grabbing someone else’s umbrella

Absolutely hilarious if you have any knowledge of Japan. Your umbrella is the one thing that is absolutely not safe if you leave it unattended. Japanese will joke about this.

This really calls the whole article into question.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#205
For those visiting Japan, I'd like to add one important point. It's true that parts of Japan's judicial system are truly "middle age". https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hideaki-ueda-japan-shut-up-vi...

However, fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), you can't bribe officials. Japan is a society where it's difficult to get special treatment by giving money, not just to officials. If you try to use bribes, you'll only be looked down upon and put in a worse position.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#206
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's frustrating to try to interpret these stories with a lot of writing and video describing everything except the crucial detail about what the charges were for. Is it really a crucial detail though? As someone having lived in Japan for a long time, I see no reason why we can not discuss the fact that civil rights and detention treatment in Japan are lacking without resorting to "Do they deserve it in light of wh…

[flagged]

You can love Japanese culture and still call them out when they are clearly uncivilized. We're talking about a culture largely defined by the same people that did Nanjing. It's quite ironic that the same culture that claims to be pacifist has no problem inflicting psychological torture on prisoners. Asia in general has this problem.

Makes me think of TNG (Season 1, Episode 8). Death for walking on the grass.

What is Justice anyway?

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#208

stealing or overstaying visa is crime everywhere. why surprised about arrest? other countries ignore this? from japan.

The surprise isn't about the arrest. The surprise is about the extremely harsh conditions people are placed in after being arrested--without any proportionality of what they were arrested for, before it is known whether or not they are guilty of the crime that was accused.

Rule 34 of internet conversations about justice is that someone will always say "just obey the law" even if the law is the death penalty for walking on the grass.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still easily buy it here, but the over-the-counter pills are always mixed with other ingredients to make it more difficult to convert them into amphetamines. E.g. Contac 600 Plus can be found in basically all drug stores and it has 120mg of Pseudoephedrine, 100mg Caffeine, 8mg Chlorpheniramine, and 0.4mg of Belladonna Extract. It sounds like it'll actually be illegal to import into Japan, since 120/(120 + 100…

Ok, that makes sense. I am assuming it is not common to be arrested for possessing this kind of over the counter remedy?

Not for the ones you buy in Japan, since those are legal.

But, it's not unheard of to get randomly stopped by the police and searched, especially in touristy areas like train stations. Unless you're a Japanese citizen, you have to show ID, and although the searches are optional, most people agree to them.

For customs, usually a few people from each plane are searched.

Anecdotally, if you're a tourist, they're usually looking for medicine that was legal outside of Japan, but illegal within Japan, with small amounts leading to being detained for 23 days (like in this blog post). And if they decide to prosecute you, you'd probably get a suspended sentence (so no prison time), but you'd get deported and a temporary ban from coming back to Japan.

Re: Getting arrested in Japan

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The legal system doesn't have the resources to move forward with the case and decides it isn't a priority. I've seen this happen many times with people I know committing violent felonies. Even for smaller examples it happens all the time. Half the time you can completely get out of traffic tickets by showing up to court to plead not guilty. They dismiss the case because it's not worth the time.

> They dismiss the case because it's not worth the time. I don't know what this means in the context of the US justice system. They're not paid on commission. They're being paid to be there no matter what happens. They dismiss the case because the cop didn't bother to show up, or they didn't have any evidence against your defense. The reason you (as the person who got ticketed) don't show up to court is because you k…

Large Criminal Justice systems like NYC have a large population and it's easy to end up being thrown in a cell and forgotten. Having a lawyer or not is the biggest difference in outcomes. I sat in on a lot of court cases in Philly when dealing with a case. Saw 17 year olds locked up with no lawyer over a simple drug case while a guy caught dealing pounds hired a lawyer and got off with nothing after completing a "rehab" program. Guy didn't even use.
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