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110 is the number to dial if you’re in real serious trouble and need the police. But what constitutes real serious trouble?
“Hello, police? I hurt my foot and can’t move. Could you bring me a medicated bandage from the drug store?”
“Hello, police? Please come, hurry! There’s a cockroach in the house!”
“Police? Help! I can’t get a taxi and I need to get home!”
Are people out of their minds? Shukan Josei (Dec 22) cites police statistics showing that of the 1.75 million calls made to the 110 police hotline nationwide in 2008, some 594,000 -- 33% -- were frivolous, if not downright mad.
“There’s a big dog in the park. Help!”
“My girlfriend left me. What do I do now?”
Or this from a small restaurant owner: “There’s a guy here who won’t order anything but sake. Would you mind coming by and throwing him out?”
“Even if it sounds to us like a prank call, it has to be followed up,” explains a police official. “You can’t always tell over the phone whether it’s nothing or something important. For example, somebody might have been taken hostage, and is speaking cryptically so as not to arouse the attention of the perpetrators.”
A boy calls in and screams, “I just stabbed someone!” Police rush to the scene to find a quarrel with his mother had overstimulated the boy’s imagination. It happens. But so do real stabbings.
From a police source the magazine hears of a call from a young woman employed in the finance industry. It went something like this: “I was out drinking and have no money to get home. What am I supposed to do, stay out in the street all night? I might get raped! I might get killed! I’m calling to prevent a crime!”
“There are a lot of adults out there,” muses writer Yuzuki Muroi, “who have no sense of morality and don’t grasp society’s most basic rules. It’s pretty scary, isn’t it?”
Indeed it is. The ambulance hotline -- 119 -- suffers from much the same sort of clogging of its lines and services. A year ago the city of Yokohama broke new ground by introducing a triage system -- all calls are screened and assigned levels of seriousness, which determine the nature of the response. But experts seem to doubt the police can afford that luxury.
With the year-end holidays upon us, warns Shukan Josei, “let’s hope police don’t get flooded by a spate of crazy 110 calls!”
© Japan Today
31 Comments
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goddog
Pretty funny.
flatearther
Nutters everywhere.
Reminds me of the 911 service back home. They get the same funny calls from helpless adults, as well. It's most prevalent around the holidays, too. People call in for help baking turkeys and other nonsense.
perspective
Isn't it a crime here in Japan? If not, it should be.
knews
Happens everywhere apparently! Did you see the recent article in the news about the lady in the U.S. who called the police because her husband wouldn't eat his dinner?!
perspective
A mandatory sentence of a day in jail plus a criminal record would put a stop to this very quickly.
catiano
my wife works at a store counter and she always says about those kinda bad customers. things like that happen all the time. they act that way (like this article) because there is a strong belief in this country that "every costomer is god" and so store clerks should be acting extremely apologetically even for those crazy customers. they even make the store manager visit their home for a very humble apology with some token gift, which is so common althogh its not the stores fault. the point is not to clarify if its right or wrong but to ease the crazy customers anger. - so this article is no wonder when you think about the background.
DarkKnghtZ
Well, when an entire country is trained to think like children, they are of course going to call "mommy and daddy" (the authorities) when stuff doesnt go their way. There are many times Id like to administer "stone cold stunners" to the old people who have this mentality in public.
Potsu
“There are a lot of adults out there,” muses writer Yuzuki Muroi, “who have no sense of morality and don’t grasp society’s most basic rules. It’s pretty scary, isn’t it?”
Japan in a nutshell.
NationalistRE
Most Japanese born after Showa 40 need a good slap or two to put some sense into them. Something their spoiling parents have failed to when they were teenagers.
kirakira25
Oh God, I need to stop threatening the kids with calling the police when they fight/won`t eat their dinner/are rude to me.
It seems I am creating 3 of these monsters!
flatearther
Kira- Really? You threaten to call the police?? I'm sorry, that's too cute! :)
Just do what my parents did, tell them about the closet monster who eats naughty little girls/boys. It kept me on the straight and narrow till I was 7.
cleo
Yes Kira, stop it! Teach your kids that the police are there to help them, not to shove their dinners down their throats! :-) (Unless it's something you've spent hours slaving in the kitchen to create, of course.)
flatearther - I was seriously shocked when one of my kids' little friends' mother used that ploy at the end of playtime in our house - 'If you don't come home now the monster will come and get you'. It didn't keep that young man on the straight and narrow - the monster never appeared, and he learned he could do whatever he liked with impunity.
The koban my daughter used to be stationed at gets regular calls from (among others) an old codger who complains about stuff he lost decades ago - he calls to report (eg) the theft of a packet of dried shiitake 20 years ago. He's become such a regular feature, they get worried when he doesn't call, and go to check up on him.
They also get calls about husbands who refuse to help with the washing up and dogs that need to go walkies when the owner is busy.
kyushujoe
I think dialling 110 and saying "Hello, Police?" might have already aroused their attention :)
smithinjapan
Prank calls should be treated with a fine.
bicultural
I wouldn't say this is the norm, as I personally know a lot of sensible Japanese people, but this type of news IS disturbing.
XXXXX
I tried once to call the police while on a JR train, without success.
stirfry
really, what a bunch of absolute retards
Kwaabish
still doesn't beat the 911 call one guy made in Florida for an incident where he was refused service at a fast food drive thru. Called over and over again until the police just went outright and arrested the nutter/caller.
nath
Small world! I used to work at a fastfood place where someone would come in, use a prepaid cell phone, call the cops, and leave...
Okinawamike
911:
Caller: The 12-year-old is completely out of control and I can't physically . . . she's as big as I am. I can't control her. Dispatcher: Okay, did you want us to come over and shoot her?
“Can the police come round and take my mother-in-law away? She has been here for 18 days.”
Caller: He's not breathing! Dispatcher: Can you get the phone close to him? Caller: WHY? You want to hear he's not breathing, too?
Okinawamike
Dispatcher: 9-1-1 Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Darn....I think I'm going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the Police.
hellhound
hahahahaahhahaa they are giving me so many new ideas... but they are oh so creative! I have to admit that.
Foxie
All those prank callers should be punished. I once was in serious trouble and really needed them very fast. They were however too busy with a traffic accident to come and I had to wait until it was too late.
pinoyas0629
Most Japanese born before Showa 40 should commit harakiri, stopping hanging onto their positions, leaving more room for the younger. The younger will get sane then.
nightvision
This is the generation that grew up on Hello Kitty, Dragonball Z and Urotsukidoji.
space_monkey
caller: hello police? there is a gaijin on the train. dispatcher: sir, what is he doing? caller: sitting there. dispatcher: sir, so what?? caller: I am too afraid to sit next to him and that is the only place available to sit. Can you send the police to ask him to stand up so I can sit down?
kumasan1969
awww, it is pathetic... so embarrassing...
GW
make stupid people PAY for their stupidity!
medievaltimes
First time it happens, you get a warning. Second time it happens, you get a 10,000 Yen fine.
By their statistics that would bring in about an extra 5,940,000,000 Yen a year.
yourock
It's not only Japan. My sister works for the fire service in the UK, and she tells me that they get some crazy weird calls. Example, I need a fire engine. OK, where's the fire? fire? I need a lift home and I'm in a hurry. Call a taxi then, good bye!
Disillusioned
Well, why not? Responding to these misdemeanors is their specialty. They'll probably tag a few bicycles and take a few photos of illegally parked cars while they are out investigating cockroaches in kitchens.