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Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

Got stopped in Tokyo by plainclothes cops like Glenski once about a year ago. They seemed to be practicing.

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

I've seen cops pull over Japanese people on bikes. I think they're probably checking to see if they have the papers for it maybe. I've never been stopped (well just for a second because I didn't have my light on) but my black roommate has been questioned a good five times at least by cops as he walked by the koban.

sallycat · Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 303 Location: behind you. BOO!

anecdotally, it seems that guys get stopped far, far more often than girls.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Gypsy Rose Kim · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 151

I lived about a block down from a koban, and one evening after I'd lived there for about a year, they stopped me and asked me to step inside. I showed them my gaijin card and they took out a huge book and checked my address and made some notes and sent me on my way. They never stopped my roommate, though we both walked by there several times a day.

I was in Tokyo two months ago and I got stopped, but it was totally my fault. I was walking on a street where there were no people around so I decided it'd be okay to smoke a cigarette. Walked by another koban and out came a cop. I was only there for one day, so I showed him my boarding pass that I'd arrived that morning and the ticket for leaving that evening, said I was there for a meeting, and went on my merry way. The cop even smiled and my Japanese was "jouzu" (ha, ha).

markrendl · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Osaka

Once in 18 years, while walking my GF home late at night; I was walking her bicycle as well. The cop actually didn't talk to me at all, just questioned her to make sure she was "safe" from the big bad gaijin.

One reason I never ride around by bicycle is I've heard of, and seen, so many random police stops of both gaijin and Japanese that I can't be bothered with the possible aggravations.

Mark

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

The police stops seem to be more centered on males. It really depends on where you live too. I saw people living at a gaijinhouse stopped regularly, almost every week. Of course, the Japanese people living there weren't ever stopped, at least while I was living there.

A great story from two teachers I know, two guys approaching 60. The policeman stops them in Ikebukuro (1 teacher lives in Ikebukuro, the other in Otsuka, both have been working in Ikebukuro close to 20 years). One of tehm even knew the policeman. A little lecture, on their way, they later get stopped at the same koban by another some 2 hours later! Of course, all my Japanese friends have had that happen to them! Rolling Eyes

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject:

In seven years I have never been stopped by the police. I know a few people who have but it seems to be rare. I think that other posters who say it varies from place to place may be right.

In Hiroshima the police seem to be more heavy-handed going by previous posters' comments (nickelgoat etc..) than here in Osaka.