Crimes by foreigners on the rise in Japan

It sounds like there’s at least one policeman in Tokyo who wants to attribute as many crimes as possible to foreigners, according to a comment that was left on my blog a few days ago:

 …several years ago we spotted a ‘Peeping Tom’ on our balcony watching my wife undress (on the 13th floor!) She said she had been followed home from the train a few times and felt like she was being watched in the past. I chased the guy down the street, but he got away. In my statement I told the police it was a Japanese man, but they said that was impossible – a Japanese man would NEVER do such a thing. They said he must have been Filippino. I told them I’d spent much time in the Philippines and the perv definately was not Filippino. The police then told me I probably couldn’t tell a Japanese man from a Korean, so they altered my official statement to say “he was an Asian man, possibly Korean.”

I don’t know why else he would claim there’s no such thing as a Japanese peeping tom. All he’d have to do is check their arrest records or go to any store that sells adult DVDs and see their collection of nozokiya videos. Maybe it was his first day on the job…

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

8 thoughts to “Crimes by foreigners on the rise in Japan”

  1. Hey Rich! Thanks for the comment! Also, thanks to you and Scott Lockman from Tokyo Calling, I’ve finally decided to do a podcast. I mentioned you in my latest post, if you want to check it out.
    Thanks!

    Garrek’s last blog post..The Podcast Situation

  2. Everyone knows that the white man is responsible for all that ills this place. The rumor that the Chinese account for 83% of all crimes commited by non japanese, was no doubt planted by the white devil himself.
    You do know that white people eat their own babies? You knew that didn’t you?

    Chris B’s last blog post..Japanese style (Humble)

  3. Chris, you might notice that the cop in question was trying to attribute the crime in question to a Korean. For all the racism in Japan, there’s not much anti-White or anti-Western bias apparent amongst the police. Koreans and, especially, Chinese, Filipinos, and Iranians, on the other hand, could probably save themselves a lot of time if they just reported to prison shortly after arriving in Japan.

    That said, one of my favorite random police stops did result in what could have been a comedy bit had I been funny:

    Me: “Just out of curiosity, why did you decide to stop and search me? Was I doing something suspicious?”
    Cop: “Well, we’ve had some reports of pickpockets operating in this area.”
    Me: “Really? That’s terrible. But, why did you decide to stop and search me?”
    Cop (speaking more slowly): “There are pickpockets in this area.”
    Me: “OK. But I mean, why me? I’d be a bad pickpocket.”
    Cop (having checked my bag, ID, and scrutinized intently a copy of Dune I was carrying): “Maybe. Italy has more pickpockets than America. What’s your religion?”
    Me: “What?”
    Cop: “Do you belong to a new religion?”
    Me: “No, I’m an atheist. That’s a science fiction novel. . .”
    Cop: “I know. Where are you from in America? I went to Hawaii last year.”
    Me: “I’m sorry, but. . . I’m White. I’m 178cm tall and I weigh 85kg. I would not be a good pickpocket.”
    Cop: “You can go. Be careful.”

    Like all dealings I’ve had with the police at their instigation, I left completely baffled.

    The only explicit racism I’ve seen first hand was when a friend reported his bicycle (a nice mountain bike) stolen from in front of his apartment building, the chain cut. The cops immediately started talking about Chinese thieves. When my friend asked how they knew the thief was Chinese, they looked at him as if he’d asked how they knew it was raining at that moment.
    Incidentally, the probable thieves were caught in front of the same building a couple of weeks later with a small flatbed truck taking expensive bikes from in front of the larger buildings in the neighborhood – both were Japanese college-aged guys.

    Garrett’s last blog post..FDR Issues US Declaration of War on Japan following Pearl Harbor Attack

  4. Yeah, it’s so deeply rooted they don’t even realize how f’d up it is.
    If the old people would just die off in a mass extinction it might get a bit better. But these old people over here live for ever…seems like it anyway.

    Chris B’s last blog post..Japanese style (Humble)

  5. Wow that is pretty crazy. He’s probably into that whole anti-gaijin magazine you posted about a while back. Is this a big problem in Japan, ever run into before?
    Rich, or anyone, I was wondering if you could help me with a podcast. I want to make one, I just need to know how to start this whole thing, so can drop by blog and leave me a comment if you are willing to help. Thanks everyone!

    Carl’s last blog post..My Blogging Side

  6. Carl: I’ve run into discrimination before, but instead of getting angry or indignant about it, I think of it as a valuable lesson every white male American should have to learn in his life to get a understanding of what it’s really like to be a looked down on as a minority. If I meet someone who’s a racist or xenophobe, I realize they were that way before we met, and they’ll probably continue to be afterwards.

    That anti-gaijin magazine was a one-off fluke. I’ve never seen anything like that before or after it hit the newsstands. Maybe there are anti-foreigner books in bookstores, but I’ve never looked. There’s certainly a lot of white supremacy literature available in the US if you go looking for it, but I don’t see it as a reflection of the entire population.

    About podcasting: I’d be the last person I’d take advice from. All I do is record myself thinking out loud when I feel like I have something more or less worth sharing, or I imagine myself talking to a friend who just wants to listen. And keep friends in mind all the time–don’t let the haters rent space in your head. Whatever you have to say, it’ll click with some people, and others not. Anyone who’s successful has to have a thick skin when it comes to criticism, both real and imagined. (I’m still not exactly the best at this.)

    Maybe I’m wrong on this, but don’t pay attention to the numbers. That includes other podcasters’ numbers, not just your own. They’re not important. People are. Personally, I try to keep myself humble and my numbers low.

    Don’t get too personal, or if you do, stay absolutely anonymous. Assume that whatever you say can and will be held against you, especially by your friends and extra-especially by your relatives, who might hold a very long grudge for something you said but didn’t mean, or meant but not in the way they heard it.

    Expect your first 50 podcasts to suck. Try not to worry about it. Anyone who’s successful knows what it’s like to fail in public. I think a big reason why they’re successful is because they don’t let it stop them.

    Buy the best microphone you can afford. Crappy audio is very hard to listen to. I recommend trying to find an old iRiver or something better, because it’s important to be able to hear exactly what you’re recording.

  7. Another recent example of finger pointing – On Saturday the morning after the terrible shooting in Sasebo, Nagasaki I read a news article that said the young lady Mai Kuramoto, who was killed the night before was being stalked by a foreigner. “Sources at the sports club said that recently Kuramoto had been stalked by a foreigner.” original story . So the article left you hanging, thinking a foreigner commited this terrible act. As we all know now, the murder and stalker of Kuramoto was 100% Japanese.

  8. It is all really stupid. On New Years Eve, I was on the train going into the city with some of my friends and one (very drunk guy, (of a race I cannot pick, not Caucasian, but near the same area (lighter skinned)) asked a Sudanese girl (In Australia we have been getting a lot of news about the Sudanese not mixing in very well… but I think that is just a bit too big, I’ve meet a lot of nice Sudanese people at school last year) to smile, any way she didn’t and he asked her again and her brother basically said to back off (I cannot remember hearing what the brother had said) the guy does so and the a bit later he says sorry to the girl and then at the train stop in Oakleigh he starts a punch up with the brother. seconds later after this fight moves off the VERY CROWED TRAIN two other completely different group (one a Asian person (who was hitting the other guys with a ‘bling bling’ necklace) is in the fight on the train. the police were called up, thankfully no-one was permanently injured (a blood noise) was about the worse I saw.
    All started by racism.
    the only think that didn’t make me hate guy at all that day were the fact that a lot of people tried to stop the fights, and tried to raise the bitter mood afterwards.

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