“The places you’re most like to get stopped and questioned are by the east exit of Shinjuku Station, around the Sakuraya Hobby-kan, or at the west exit, over by the Yodobashi Camera Game-Hobby shop,” the young man tells Weekly Playboy (Feb 4).

He’s referring to “shokumu shitsumon” or “shoku-shitsu” – the Japanese term for ex-officio questioning, which typically involves a policeman’s halting a citizen for impromptu questioning, and sometimes also asking to see the contents of a bag, knapsack or pockets.

Ostensibly the Shinjuku police had upped their patrols in response to Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara’s campaign to clean up nearby Kabukicho. But if the magazine is correct, the targets are not yakuza, street touts or other denizens of the dodgy drinking district. Nor are they drug pushers, or the mythical terrorist who might be concealing an explosive belt under his jacket.

Rather, they’re shaking down nerdy “otaku” types. “If they are carrying some sort of cutting instrument, they can be charged with violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law, so this justifies questioning them,” confides an unnamed officer attached to the Shinjuku police station.

But aren’t they permitted to carry a knife for self-protection? “No,” the cop replies, “that’s not an acceptable reason. If you have one in your possession, you can be obliged to go into the koban, or even escorted to the police station. The police are especially suspicious of people who meet their gaze and then quickly look away.”

But, counters Weekly Playboy, “wouldn’t that characteristic also apply to most ‘otaku’ types anyway?” His response is non-committal.

What’s going on here? Is being a pimply, nearsighted geek suddenly being treated as a misdemeanor? A crime reporter for a nationally circulated daily newspaper confides to the magazine that it’s all about tweaking arrest statistics to make the police look better.

“In 2001, the average clearance rate for arrests leading to prosecution fell to an all-time low of 19.8%,” the reporter points out. “During the first half of 2007, it had recovered to 31.2%. It looks like police are under orders from the top not to let the rate fall any lower.

“At Shinjuku at least, the strategy would seem to keep up the arrest rate by rousting ‘otaku’ types. That’s a lot safer than shaking down gang members. So it looks like the police are doing things the easy way, boosting clearance rates without adopting any substantive improvements in their investigative capability.”

Weekly Playboy notes that according to the Performance of Police Functions Act, an officer can only stop and question a citizen based on “probable cause,” but of late, patrolmen around Shinjuku don’t seem to be particularly scrupulous in adhering to this stipulation.

Furthermore, not many young people are aware of their rights – they can legally refuse to answer and compulsory searches of bag contents require a warrant — but mounting resistance to a team of cops would probably just invite intimidation.

The magazine’s calls to the Shinjuku Police Station were brushed off without comment. So “otaku” are left with this advisory: when strolling around Shinjuku, leave your pocket knife at home and carry a paperback copy of the legal code instead.

3 Comments

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  junkdna at 01:13 PM JST - 26th March

  Well, while the source of this article (Weekly Playboy) is a rag,knowing your rights is important in any country. Japan, for better or worse, is a country where people have unquestioningly trusted the voices of their elders and the authorities for years uncounted. Times change, and thus so too must people change the way they think.

  For expats, it may be even MORE important for you to know your rights in Japan (or those that you don't have). As an expat in Japan for nearly a decade now, I urge my fellow expats to always remain calm even when faced with blind aggression, and check David Christopher Aldwinckle's site (http://www.debito.org/) where you can obtain such information.

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  nutsagain at 07:37 AM JST - 27th March

  Good post and in addition, from the Aldwinkle site I'd suggest printing out and carrying in one's wallet the short, relevant section of the law to flash to a cop in this situation. Far better to do this than give a tangled explanation in Japanese. This info is on his site.

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  ca1ic0cat at 04:12 AM JST - 28th March

  that said, why don't the j-cops go after some real criminals instead of just bustin on geeks at the station.

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