JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

frozenduck's past comments

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  frozenduckJun. 02, 2008 - 09:25PM JST

  Yes, the Japanese Police are as incompetent as they seem. There is little attempt at enforcement except when they want to make a show of competence, which farcically often prove to be incompetent too. Take the Seika University student murder in Kyoto over a year ago: Police canvassed only 3 days later and then ended up pleading for help outside Demachiyanagi station, mainly for the benefit of the media.

  This incompetence is not helped by the criminal justice system in Japan: There is too much emphasis on the confession as the only way of gaining proof, leading to false confessions on numerous occasions (an electoral crime case comes to mind).

  The general policing system doesn't help either: There are also not enough police at key times: Everyone knows that outside of a few areas most Policeman will be tucked up in bed after 7 pm. While I don't think increasing Police numbers will help solve some crimes, just think of the number of attacks on women that might have been deterred by regular local patrols at night. Its a long time since any other developed country had a such an outdated style of policing.

  The only area of law the Japanese Police seem to be particularly keen on enforcing relates to foreigners, but then the routine registration of foreigners makes tracking and arresting foreigners easy, and, of course, it plays well with the media. The problem is that they just end up alienating an increasing proportion of the population, people who often also know what a competent police force should look like.

  Posted in: Are Japanese police really as incompetent as readers on Japan Today make them out to be?

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