Policeman suspended for issuing tickets to foreign traffic violators for wrong reasons

Friday 17th July, 05:19 AM JST

TOKYO —

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department suspended a 36-year-old sergeant for a month Thursday for issuing tickets last year to two foreigners for traffic offenses other than their main violation—driving without licenses. The sergeant resigned the same day.

According to the police, the officer issued one of the tickets for an illegal lane change and the other for ignoring a signal. The two foreigners were stopped in Minato ward on April 12 and May 3, 2008. The two foreigners did not speak Japanese and the officer was quoted as saying, “It was too much trouble to call for an interpreter.”

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Fadamor at 03:19 AM JST - 18th July

It appears the cop was suspended for missing a ticket he should have written and that the two he DID write were legitimate as well. The driver obviously made an improper lane change, resulting in the cop attempting to pull them over. I'm guessing they ignored him for too long resulting in the second charge. Where the cop went wrong is not calling for the interpreter so that he could ask for their license.

I agree that J-cops have no obligation to know all the possible languages they could come across in their country. That is simply ludicrous. If I am visiting Japan, I will have at least a basic understanding of Japanese supported by a phrase book that includes interactions with the authorities. It would be the ultimate in arrogance for me to expect them to know English.
sfjp330 at 03:21 AM JST - 18th July

Can you imagine if this happened in Los Angeles where over 200 languages are spoken? If this was a legal law and you have to wait for a translator, the Police Dept. will be diverted from what is more important such as fighting a real crime. If you are a guest in Japan, and drive, you should be able to read a road sign and understand the law in that country. If not, don't drive.
nigelboy at 03:50 AM JST - 18th July

If you worked in that area, at night, you could easily run up hundreds of stoppages over the years.

And like most ignorant foreigners who frequent the debito site, they don't ever question why there are so many police activities/presence in Chiyoda ku but rather turn this into a "foreigner only victim" issue.

What's in Chiyoda-ku? The Imperial Palace, the Diet, Diet residence, Prime Minister's residence, Bureaucrat Buildings, Metropolitan Police Dept Headquarters and 12 foreign embassies to start.

Marunouchi/Ohtemachi. Head offices to hundreds of major global companies most notably Mitsubishi group, NTT, Mizuho, Mitsui & Co. just to name a few and Japan's largest media companies.

Lowest population registered among the 23 wards (about 44K) but during the daytime, the population can inflate upwards to 850K.

So what you basically has is the "Center of Japan" all within a 11 square kilometer which is an U.S. equivalent of the White House/Capitol/Wall Street/Midtown in a concentrated location.

So if you happen to be riding a bicycle around midnight, I don't care if your black, white, yellow, or Koizumi. You're going to get stopped eventually.
ZetaSagittarii at 05:12 PM JST - 18th July

"Driving without license" or "not carrying a license"? These are two distinct violations (with distinct penalties as well) and they concern any driver, foreigner or not.

Was the poor sergeant found to have had glossed over the former one in favor of some minor traffic violations? Then I'd say I find his one-month suspension to be a rather lenient slap on the wrist. If the case involves the latter, then surely the only significant news is that it somehow took the police department well over a year to sort this out?

No matter what, he was at fault, considering that police has instant registration check capability. So, why didn't do it? Because he could not have been bothered... Excellent! Anyone care to show where does this feature appear on their job description?
smithinjapan at 01:33 AM JST - 19th July

UnagiDon: "Funny, funny stuff! That was meant as humor, right?"

Law is the law. I think the laws here can be funny sometimes, too, but I still abide by them. To give you a laymen's example so you can understand a little better, imagine the NHK man coming to your door. S/he says you have to pay the mandatory 'donation' fee (again, I abide by the 'laws' and try not to laugh). Until even 7 years ago if you played the 'I can't speak Japanese card' there was nothing they could do. Now they are required to carry translations in several languages, so if/when you decide to play said card they simply point at their translation sheet and it explains the mandatory donation rules. After that you can tell them off in whatever language you choose.

The point is, as chotto pointed out, police ARE required to carry what he said they are. I have several lawyer friends who have said that's the case as well. But hey, it IS UnagiDon, is it not? Anti-whaling threads slow these days?

Nigelboy: "And like most ignorant foreigners who frequent the debito site, they don't ever question why there are so many police activities/presence in Chiyoda ku but rather turn this into a "foreigner only victim" issue."

Come on, bud! I've been pointing out to you day in and out that there are more than six cases of pedophilia/sexual assault per six days recently and you have completely avoided the threads! What happened to your defending the indefensible? Ah, wait... silly question given that you're here with such comments as above. Why aren't you defending suspended sentences for judges committing sexual assault?

But again I'm at least in PART poking fun. I agree with some of what you say, actually, save for the clearly subjective 'ignorant' part which proves you are incapable of being objective (and after you were making so much progress!).

In a post above you mentioned 150k stops to check for bicycles, so it seems pretty clear you were googling for local police stats. Now, can you tell us how many of them were foreigners beyond a doubt? After that, can you tell us the fraction of the foreign population n the area? If we can establish that it's lower than the percentage of foreigners we can drop the whole 'foreign victim' thing once and for all, can't we? If the number of incidents of foreigners being pulled over, questions, arrested, or what have you exceed the per capita rate of foreigners... well... kind of stands as grounds for what some are saying, no?
UnagiDon at 01:55 AM JST - 19th July

smith;

Law is the law. I think the laws here can be funny sometimes, too, but I still abide by them. To give you a laymen's example so you can understand a little better, imagine the NHK man coming to your door.

I don't think you understood my point, which is that expecting Japanese police to explain things in languages other than Japanese is ludicrous, nothing more.

But hey, it IS UnagiDon, is it not? Anti-whaling threads slow these days?

Can't post without slipping in little character assassination? And I have no idea what the "anti-whaling threads" comment is even about.
amerijap at 06:25 AM JST - 19th July

It's good for the NPA to take an appropriate measure on random ticketing practices which sometimes go too far like the US where some foreign drivers often become the target of random ticketing on highways in some counties of the states. In particular areas, local sheriff condone the trickeries by the dirty-mind officers who pick on the drivers to pull over on any occasion. They make up a story like “we’re following you and saw you speeding at 80 mph on 60 mph lane,” and give a citation for violating a speed-limit or ignoring a specific traffic sign, even though the drivers didn't speed after all.
knowitall at 11:05 AM JST - 19th July

I searched for this on Japanese news sites. The foreigners had licenses for cars, but were driving motorcycles. This constitutes driving without a license (completely different from the offense of not carrying your license). Though the sources do not say, I assume that somewhere in the paperwork processing it was discovered that the vehicle was a motorcycle but the license was for a car only. An inquiry was probably made and the discrepancy discovered. Driving without a license is a fairly serious infraction carrying a maximum penalty of a year in prison (though I doubt many get the maximum sentence). The minor infractions were made, but the officer didn't want to do the paperwork for the major infraction. This could constitute a forgery of official documents on the part of the police officer. Ticketing for a minor infraction and giving a warning is common. But in this case the officer was lazy and not very smart....
tjfrancis at 02:27 PM JST - 19th July

a friend is a deputy in a small town in hawaii, and he likes to harass the japanese that come thru...poetic justice

poetic justice now? really? unless every single japanese that "passes thru" is an officer back home issuing tickets based on racial profiling, I hardly see it as poetic. I see it more as a sad case of generalization to which innocent tourists are being victimized.
bushlover at 12:36 AM JST - 20th July

poor poor chotto. If only you would cooperate with the police you wouldn't have so much grief. I agree with the foreign victim mentality. It's your issue. not the cops. They are just doing their job.
chotto at 06:08 PM JST - 20th July

First off, to all those that supported me in the above statements. Thank you.

To Bushlover and others; maybe you didn't read my post properly, or I didn't make myself clear, or you just can't plain understand.

Let's ignore the fact that I can speak pretty good Japanese for a second. So-called "Foreign Victim Mentality" has aboslutely ZILCH to do with what I'm arguing, so I will try and spell it out one last time...

"If you are stopped because you are committing a crime or are stopped because the police have GOOD GROUNDS / E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E, THEN that is fine in my book. BUT..... BUT...... BUT...... if you are stopped for no other justifiable reaosn whatsover, or without cause or grounds for any suspicion whatsoever other than simply being foreign, then that is INEXCUSABLE, no matter what country you live in or where you come from a government employee being harassed for "NO GOOD REASON OTHER THAN BEING FOREIGN" That's unacceptable in any country. I wonder if the fact that every Japanese person I have told / who has asked me about this has sympathised with me, is any indicator of who is in the wrong here.

If you don't like that perspective, then taihen for you.
lordomni at 03:03 PM JST - 21st July

Odd, did he pull them over for the lane change? There is nothing about that in the article. Regardless, if they don't understand, issue the correct ticket anyways. I agree its not his responsibility to be a translator, though if working in Tokyo a cop has to be an idiot to not learn basic English vocab. The majority of foreign residents in Tokyo understand basic English.

For Chotto, 100% agree. Police shouldn't be allowed to stop people without a reason. Makes Japan look like China or North Korea.

Amerijap, its a big differnce between Japan and the US where if your story is true, people in the US would be outraged and demand those officers were suspended, fined, or fired for any such actions. Its disgusting and unconstitutional, not to mention grossly illegal. In Japan, its encouraged at all levels and Japanese people don't seem to care. I have some female Japanese friends who have been stopped and carded before because they weren't wearing make-up, so the cop thought they were Chinese. He actually said 'if you're Japanese, where is your make-up?' Slimeball would be sued and fired so fast in the US his head would be spinning all the way to the unemployment line.
dokachin at 08:43 PM JST - 21st July

I was stopped on my bike for riding in the wrong lane (by mistake). I look Japanese and spoke some Japanese but not well. As soon as they heard me speak the policeman muttered "it's a foreigner...it's too much hassle' Gaikokujin da...aa mendokusai' and let me on my way with a warning.
flyingfish at 11:36 AM JST - 22nd July

chotto,

good on you mate for fighting this and do not take any notice of idiots on you critcizing you.it always amazes me why foreigners in japan turn on other foreigners who fight against discrimination here but do nothing to make a better society.what you were doing is perfectly legal and its only by making a fuss that the police will stop this blatant racism.
TSRnow at 01:39 PM JST - 22nd July

Personally, I wouldn't hold a grudge on the police stopping perfectly innocent people under the name of "Shokumu-shitsumon". My stolen bicycle came back to me a year later thanks to this sort of police-work. A bit slow, but effective.

Going back to the article, with all the foreigners around, I think they should be able to handle this by now. Not all the languages, maybe, but English at least!