r/PublicFreakout • u/Chocolat3City • Mar 31 '23
Embarrassed Japanese cops abandon search of woman's bag after she tells them what's inside.
Yes, I know Japan is no Shangri-la to "seiyohjin" (western foreigners).
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u/Oldboy780 Mar 31 '23
*takes mental note in case I need to smuggle anything in Japan.
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u/shahooster Mar 31 '23
Kilo of coke, wrapped in panties.
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u/WhiteHairedWidow Mar 31 '23
“Sir, I’m gonna need to look in your bag..”
“But I will be embarrassed! I have my panties and dildos in my bag. They’re used l! Very smelly!”
“Ohh okay I am so sorry. I am embarrassed now. Goodbye.”
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
The stinky panty drug smuggler strikes again!
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u/imposterfish Mar 31 '23
Sounds straight from a Yakuza side story
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u/Mixedpopreferences Mar 31 '23
"I need olives; can you bring me olives? It's only my style to be secret, please bring me 5 cans of olives. But don't believe me if I say I don't like Im just pretending I hate olives."
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u/Fragrant_Island2345 Mar 31 '23
“I often think about that night. Such a small event, but ultimately the moment that would lead me to becoming Ioban. Highest leader of the Yakuza.”
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u/StupidOnlineTutor Mar 31 '23
Street prices are now fixed at 70,000 yen per 1 gram, which is a third of the price of cocaine.
holy shit, I think I need to change careers
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u/WanderlustFella Mar 31 '23
We talking about the same country you can buy a pornstar's panties from a fucking vending machine on a busy street.
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u/aroddored Apr 01 '23
Every country has its share of perverts and an economy that will supply them.
I'm just surprised that there are no vending machines in the USA that sell fuckable guns. 😆
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u/turbodude69 Mar 31 '23
don't smuggle anything into japan. the cops at the airport don't give a fuck. they tossed my whole bag last time i went there. and they looove to throw tourists in jail for small amounts of drugs and their conviction rate it 99%. so please, don't smuggle ANYTHING even remotely illegal into japan. they take that shit extremely seriously.
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u/Muffinzor22 Mar 31 '23
I had a lay over in Malaysia, before we pass the customs to enter the country there are many signs telling tourists about how Malaysia has death sentence laws for drugs, even marijuana. Do not fuck around in other countries, that's damn right.
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u/ThrowCarp Apr 01 '23
I took a flight from Jakarta to Singapore and was taken aback as how casually the overhead announcer mentioned that "the penalty for drug possestion is death" in the same breath as "please fasten your seatbelts".
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u/Not_invented-Here Apr 01 '23
Man I remember that as a traveller, standing at a border rail station on a train trip from Thailand to Penang getting my passport stamped at early AM. I'd had some valium to help me sleep, I'd with the help of some people finished a fair bit of whiskey, and every time I wedged my eyes open while standing falling asleep there was a big sign with that warning in my vision.
For contrast a large part of the rest of my group on that platform was a bright eyed and healthy loooking Thai youth table tennis team.
I'm amazed they let me in TBH.
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u/Oldboy780 Mar 31 '23
I actually believe that, that's why it seems a bit odd they gave up so quick because of the skerry women's panties.
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u/topdangle Mar 31 '23
its because
they aren't meant to do this out on the street without reasonable suspicion. she may have just been walking and they decided to check because she looks foreign, which is not considered reasonable (though they can ask for ID/passport).
shes got a camera on and already streaming.
she doesn't "act" like a criminal, and police in Japan (in general as well but very consistent in Japan) tend to target more stereotypical angry or anxious people hoping to keep their conviction rates high and not get reprimanded by their bosses for wasting time.
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u/simcity4000 Mar 31 '23
I don’t know anything about Japanese law but it looks veeery much like the familiar situation when a cop asks you to do something you don’t legally have to do, but they’re asking hoping you’ll cave in and give them permission.
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u/skynetempire Mar 31 '23
a friend almost went to prison in Japan for his adderall prescription. they wanted to hit him hard but they decided to ban him for 10 years and deport him. He got lucky
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u/StockingDummy Apr 01 '23
Did he mention his prescription up front? That's still an obvious example of how messed up the laws are there, but I figure it's worth asking about.
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u/skynetempire Apr 01 '23
Well, he's an idiot. I had told him it was illegal in Japan. He told me I was full of it. I said I have been there twice and I have researched the prescription laws. I had sent a email to the Japanese pharmaceutical airport dept, listed all the meds I was taking. They said those meds are OK and gave me a letter to print, just in case. The idiot still took his meds thinking he was above Japanese law. They tossed his shit and found it. He's extremely lucky they decide to ban him vs 5 to 10 years in prison.
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u/StockingDummy Apr 01 '23
So essentially, he played with matches and he got burned?
Sticking to the metaphor, at least it was just a first-degree burn...
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u/No-Document-932 Apr 01 '23
A girl my sister knew in high school was teaching in Japan and her mom mailed her her adderall prescription. The Japanese police tracked her down at the restaurant she was eating at with friends and arrested her on the spot. She was in Japanese prison last I heard
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u/WWDubz Mar 31 '23
Unlike all the other countries who take smuggling drugs into there borders lightly
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u/turbodude69 Mar 31 '23
most other countries don't toss your whole bag just because you're a foreigner. and most countries don't throw you in jail for small amounts or over the counter drugs. so yeah, it's pretty weird.
the guy at my hostel had broken his leg in japan, and was having trouble just getting iburprofen. luckily i always travel with small amounts of stuff like tylenol and ibuprofen and i had some for him. but japan is suuuper strict when it comes to drugs, especially with foreigners. even drugs that are normally over the counter in most countries.
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u/Splinterman11 Mar 31 '23
What do you mean he was having trouble getting ibuprofen? Those are extremely common in Japan.
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u/WWDubz Mar 31 '23
Sounds like he didn’t know how to buy basic over the counter drugs
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u/Interesting-Image293 Mar 31 '23
Dude you can buy codine over the counter in Japan the fuck are you talking about?
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u/MostBoringStan Mar 31 '23
I wonder if it was something like the hospital was telling him that they wouldn't just give it to him because he had to go to the pharmacy, but the guy took it to mean they wouldn't give it to him because he wasn't allowed to have it. Either that, or the story just plain didn't happen.
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u/DeathHorseFucker Mar 31 '23
I knew a guy who’s sister run a pretty big xtc smuggling scheme from here to japan. They would send several people on a plane with a good amount of drugs and one person with a little less than the rest. Then they would anonymously tip japan’s customs(?) That the person holding the smallest amount was smuggling drugs to divert their attention from the rest. The guy i knew was in need for some money and asked his sister to join in on it. His own sister gave him the smallest amount. He spent 9 years there. If only he knew about this gold trick.
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u/Sososoftmeows Mar 31 '23
Damnnn. That’s awful. What happened between him And his sister?!? How could she do him so dirty like that?! Like who were the other mules then… her kids and husband?? That’s the only reason I could see someone turning their own family member in.
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u/DeathHorseFucker Mar 31 '23
Last time i heard he had no clue where she was and hasn’t seen her since. The other smugglers where mostly people who done it on the regular. Some people really only care about themselves and their profits.
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u/LuckyPlaze Mar 31 '23
9 years. In prison?
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u/BannedFromHydroxy Mar 31 '23
The Japanese do not fuck around with drug trafficking
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
i dont care how broke i am, nine years is nine years. plus in a foreign prison, that ain't going to go good for me.
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u/starkistuna Mar 31 '23
yeah they are pretty harsh here a doc I found about a french crypto bros company that went bankrupt and he was accused of embezzelment he had to sit on a tiny cell for 11 months to wait for trial only to be found innocent : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49cif3uiGc
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u/A_Downboat_Is_A_Sub Mar 31 '23
a pretty big xtc smuggling scheme from here to japan.
"These albums are all prohibited. Skylarking, Nonsuch, English Settlement, Black Sea, Oranges & Lemons....I even see you're smuggling a copy of Chips From The Chocolate Fireball that they released under another name. You're going to do hard time for this."
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u/7385911345 Mar 31 '23
*Googles: "Does Victoria's Secret make panties for men?"
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u/Oldboy780 Mar 31 '23
Yes, they're called panties for women. 😉
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u/Icantblametheshame Mar 31 '23
Whoah, man
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u/PuppidVelids Apr 01 '23
" a beautiful sight, were happy tonight, walkin round in women's underwear"
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u/Shadeauxmarie Mar 31 '23
TSA would take them for their own enjoyment.
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
they be like o ya?!.... what else u got
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u/OrangeSimply Mar 31 '23
I've seen enough dildo in the search luggage pranks to know that TSA are rooting for everyone to join the mile high club.
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u/TonginTozz Mar 31 '23
Cops hate this! Find out the new trick to stop a search.
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u/westcoastweedreviews Mar 31 '23
Is this normal in Japan? Do police just do random bag checks?
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u/FaintCommand Mar 31 '23
Japan doesn't mess around. They literally do not have public trash cans because of a terrorist attack involving trash cans many many years ago. They just noped out of public waste management.
Still one of the cleanest (and safest) places I've visited. People just hold on to their trash until they get home.
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u/Conversationknight Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23
That is absolutely a crowning civil achievement. If only people in the U.S. has this kind of respect towards society.
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u/BallEngineerII Mar 31 '23
I am not exaggerating when I say I could hardly find so much as a single cigarette butt on the ground in Tokyo, cleanest city I've ever visited. I stayed in a capsule hotel because it was the cheapest possible option at about 35 usd per night and even that was straight up immaculate, like hospital level clean.
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u/Partly_Dave Mar 31 '23
Went into a public toilet in a park that was spotless. Open 24 hours, too. Thought maybe it had just been cleaned, but found that was common.
However... we stopped at a roadside rest area on a rural highway, and it was filthy with rubbish everywhere.
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u/vlee89 Mar 31 '23
What do people do with the butts when smoking outside?
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u/ChildofValhalla Mar 31 '23
Major cities have designated smoking areas, and many smokers also carry portable ashtray thingies (you may have seen Solid Snake using one in MGS4).
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u/0tanod Mar 31 '23
So crazy what we could accomplish if we had the schools teach society to clean up after itself.
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u/Tatmar Mar 31 '23
School teach kids to clean up. People are just dick heads and don’t care.
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u/babbitts2ndbutthole Mar 31 '23
I think it has a little to do with how schools in the West treat cleaning up. Behave badly? Come back after school and clean up the schoolyard. I think treating a clean-up as a punishment makes people resent the chore.
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u/Alienziscoming Mar 31 '23
I don't know why you got downvoted because this is 100% true. Cleaning and organizing and other household chores should not be taught as punishments. They're a necessary part of life and they make things better. It's not about suffering. My dad used to use doing dishes as a punishment and I can rationalize as an adult and wash my dishes but it gives me anxiety and took me a long time to get over resenting the task.
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u/KamuikiriTatara Mar 31 '23
As early as middle school in Nagoya, we always cleaned up the classroom ourselves. We also served our own lunches, and wiped the board after our teachers were done. Keeping things clean as a collective activity is just part of the social script. I don't recall when this started, but now most trash bags are transparent so you can see whether recycling is done correctly or not. Japan is a very comfortable place to live because of the collective sense of sharing society. People will give each other small practical gifts like tissues or toilet paper if they cause a local disturbance such as a loudly crying child in their home. My mom taught me to respond by giving them something back that can help, such as a tasty treat for the child. I don't live in Japan anymore and have become accustomed to life in the States, but I do wish there was a more responsible sense of community here. While I like that people are willing to speak more candidly and honestly, I also think the actualization of social roles, even if it is sometimes just acting, transforms how we think of ourselves in relation to others. The fiercely independent mindset here, while often admirable, is sometimes a hindrance to living peacefully and respecting each other. I'll be heading back to Japan to visit family later this year and am excited as it will be my first time back since the pandemic.
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u/Karmastocracy Mar 31 '23 edited Apr 01 '23
Here are a few non-joke answers for you:
Pop inside a store for a second to throw them away
Portable ashtray pouches
Throw them back in the pack with a folded piece of paper dividing smoked/unsmoked
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u/ThrowCarp Apr 01 '23
Pop inside a store for a second to throw them away
Yeah, the advice I always give to people who want advice outside of the usual ones is "There is a lack of rubbish bins, places to sit down, and toilets in Tokyo for some reason. You can find all 3 in a convenience store."
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u/tgg11 Mar 31 '23
i'm sure if they tried this in a U.S. city they would throw the trash where the can used to be in protest.
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Mar 31 '23
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u/mylittlevegan Mar 31 '23
I will never forget the time I saw someone manually roll down their window ( that's how long ago this was) and gently place their Burger King trash on the ground while stopped at a red light.
Not a care in the world.
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u/Megsann1117 Mar 31 '23
I was driving behind someone on the freeway last week and they very casually rolled down their window and threw something out the window. I did a little toot on my horn as a ‘I saw that asshole’ before I realized it was an airplane bottle and I’ve never seen someone get off the freeway so fast in my life. I think we just have to call people out on their bullshit because people in general don’t think.
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u/Sid-Biscuits Mar 31 '23
I watched someone driving down the highway holding an open full garbage bag and letting trash fly out into the road.
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u/vincent118 Mar 31 '23
You'd have to basically change Americas individualist culture at its very core to get the same result. It would likely also have to be a monoculture.
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u/turtleneck360 Mar 31 '23
Might be easier to take away guns than change an entire culture of "me, me, me". Hell, social media is built off of people getting a high from "me, me, me".
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u/fauxRealzy Mar 31 '23
Works because their culture is susceptible to shame, as it should be. America, on the other hand, is utterly shameless so something like that would never work.
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u/hmmliquorice Mar 31 '23
Shameless individuals still put this kind of system in jeopardy (because shameless individuals still exist within this kind of system). I heard of a public health scandal this year or at the end of 2022 where big restaurant chains of conveyor-belt sushi were in trouble because some people had been messing with the sushi (licking it, licking the soy sauce bottles and adding tons of wasabi in someone else' order). This system based on trust functions as long as people as a whole play the game, but gets spoiled by the few that don't.
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u/FaintCommand Mar 31 '23
Yeah, but they will collectively ostracize you into oblivion if they catch you in the act.
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u/Ok_Try_1217 Mar 31 '23
I went to Japan and was wondering why they didn’t have any trash cans. Thank you for solving the mystery!
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u/im4lonerdottie4rebel Mar 31 '23
Wait where do they dispose of their waste then? Like if I purchased a canned drink on the street, drank it and then needed to be rid of it?
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u/Viper999DC Mar 31 '23
Vending machines often have trash cans next to them, parent saying there are no public trash cans is a bit of an exaggeration (though the are extremely rare by western standards!). You're expected to drink there, not walk and drink (this is considered rude). But if there's no trash can then you simply carry your trash until you can dispose of it later. It's an empty can, you don't "need to be rid of it", lol.
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u/LazyCat4242 Mar 31 '23
From what I gathered in my 2 weeks in Tokyo most trash cans next to vending machines look like they are for cans only tho, no? I mostly took my trash with me back to my hotel, but some convenience stores and other stores had trash cans nearby / in the store.
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u/mingvg Apr 01 '23
Japan is extremely strict with sorting their garbage. You would be denied garbage pickup if your garbage isn't sorted properly
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u/turtleneck360 Mar 31 '23
parent saying there are no public trash cans is a bit of an exaggeration
I think this is dependent upon where you are. Sometimes you cannot find a trashcan and sometimes you will come across a few.
At our last stay in Kyoto, we Airbnb'd at a location south of Kyoto Station. We took the trash out that day to try to find a place to throw it away. It was just a small grocery bag of wrappers and miscellaneous stuff. My intention was to find a public trashcan along the way and dump it off.
I walked the 10 minutes from our Airbnb to Kyoto Station. No trash cans. Walked through the station and boarded our train. No trash cans. I carried that bag from Kyoto Station to Nara Station. Eventually, I gave up and knew of one place that would definitely have a trash can. I went into the station bathroom and tossed it in there.
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u/BallEngineerII Mar 31 '23
There are usually recycling cans right next to the vending machines but thats about the only place you will find to throw things away. Walking and eating/drinking is also considered somewhat rude (from what i was told anyway), if you buy something at a vending machine you're kind of expected to eat/drink it right there or pack it away.
Sometimes when I was there and needed to throw something away I would duck into a convenience store as they always have trash cans near the doors. This is probably frowned upon so I made sure people didn't see me do it, even though Japanese people are too polite to call someone out
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u/Mythoclast Mar 31 '23
You'd stash it in a bag or somesuch and throw it away when you got home.
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u/OnePunchDan Mar 31 '23
No the fuck they don’t lmao. There’s piles of garbage all over the place. Japan isn’t some litter free utopia
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u/WOTDisLanguish Mar 31 '23
I don't know what you're talking about, I just visited Google Streetview for Japan (Bunkyo City, Tokyo) and these streets are pristine
I saw a single can in a curb after 20-ish clicks, I couldn't even find cigarettes
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u/OrangeSimply Mar 31 '23
I mean you can definitely go into the urban density of tokyo and find trash littered streets, graffiti, etc. the chances of it not existing are just next to impossible lol. But the argument that there's piles of garbage all over the place is just copium that their home country isn't as good at one aspect than another country.
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u/FaintCommand Mar 31 '23
Exactly. There's always exceptions to the rule, but by and large, the bigger cities are astonishingly clean.
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u/ai-sac Mar 31 '23
Depends on where you're at, I would get stopped all the time in Roppongi. Could have just been the way I looked. I never got bothered by cops anywhere else in Japan when I lived there.
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u/Bastienbard Mar 31 '23
They don't do random bag checks but they're pretty damn brutal (for a developed nation) when it comes to getting confessions.
"Various human rights organizations has alleged that the high conviction rate is due to the rampant use of conviction solely based on forced confessions, including those that are innocent.[24] Confessions are often obtained after long periods of questioning by police, as those arrested may be held for up to 23 days without trial. This can at times take weeks, during which the suspect is in detention, and are prevented from contacting a lawyer or family.[25] Academics have also studied that Japanese judges can be penalized by a personnel office if they rule in ways the judicial office dislikes, and face biased incentives to convict. Using data on the careers and opinions of 321 Japanese judges, it was found that judges who engage in acquittals have worse careers.[2]"
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u/ffchampion123 Mar 31 '23
Yep. My Japanese friend was training to be a police officer is Osaka and they were told they had to stop foreigners and bag check them exclusively. It's one of the reasons he quit.
I also got stopped 3 times when going to the post office once in my little town however to be fair they were having Abe Shinzo visit the nearby shrine so they were a bit more concerned with security (this was about a year or so before Abe was killed)
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u/mizzzikey Apr 01 '23
I heard you’re supposed to carry your passport at all times? Is that true?
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u/ffchampion123 Apr 01 '23
If you're travelling sure. If you live and work there you have what's called a zairyu card which is basically your government id
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u/WhiteHawktriple7 Mar 31 '23
The fact she was a gaijan probably contributed
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u/conormcc27 Mar 31 '23
Grew up in Tokyo and was a tall teenage foreigner. Got stopped by the cops for my alien registration card or had my bicycle registration randomly checked about once every month or two.
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Mar 31 '23
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
ya i feel like she might of been targeted for a specific reason. also her flimsy excuse doesn't seem like enough to throw off police. whole video is weird
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u/Nervous_Ulysses Mar 31 '23
I’m also around the 5,000 mark. Never once ever. To be honest, she doesn’t look shady or anything, so I don’t know what this is all about.
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u/dolerbom Mar 31 '23
Japan has too many cops relative to the codes of conduct they actually enforce. They could be spending more time investigating domestic violence and sexual crimes, but instead they make up jobs for themselves like search quotas, hassling teenagers for bicycle thefts that didn't happen, etc.
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u/gramie Mar 31 '23
It never happened to me in over 7 years.
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u/Kriegmannn Mar 31 '23
Never happened to me once in over two decades. Granted I don’t live in Japan but still
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u/SilverChemist1161 Mar 31 '23
I got into a similar situation when I was traveling between Korea and Japan. They randomly asked me to see my bag and I didn't have anything to hide so I complied.
To my surprise, I found out that Adderall is illegal in both countries and I had quite a bit in my bags. They were really nice about it and actually brought me to a station, helped me fill out forms, sent them to some narcotics department and I got a permit to carry Adderall all within 20 to 30 minutes.
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u/DogsAreAnimals Mar 31 '23
Did you have to show them your prescription? If you didn't know it was illegal I'd assume you didn't have your Rx on you
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u/SilverChemist1161 Mar 31 '23
In the process of filling out the forms I called my liaison and they sent over notes and documentation. Only issue that came up was that it was a 90 day prescription supply and it had to be prescribed within a window leading up to the day of travel, but they ultimately said it was fine.
Switched over to some new ADHD medication called Azstarys and traveled to Korea recently to visit my parents -- it was a really simple process.
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u/Josh_Crook Apr 01 '23
Switched over to some new ADHD medication called Azstarys
If you don't mind me asking, how do you like it compared to addy?
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u/SuperSafe2019 Mar 31 '23
So, just say I have panties if you are packing heat
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u/SuperSafe2019 Mar 31 '23
Cop, “we wanna see if you got illegal stuff please?” Person, “nope.” Cop, “ok”
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
whole thing was weirdly too easy for her to get away with
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u/Daddict Mar 31 '23
That's technically how it is supposed to work in America too though. They ask "can I search?", ya say no. Dare em to get a warrant.
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u/iamthecaptionnow Mar 31 '23
Me: my panties are in there
Them: Sir?
Me: also, don’t judge.
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u/Vonnegut_butt Mar 31 '23
I was flying back to Japan (where I lived) after a trip to Thailand with my mother. When I got to Japanese customs, they took one look at me (big, hairy guy wearing black and traveling solo) and suspected the worst. Luckily, I spoke some Japanese, and as they peppered me with questions, I was able to respond decently. When they asked if I was traveling alone, I explained that I had gone to Thailand with my mother, who was now catching a flight back to the states. And with that, they smiled and nodded and let me through without a search (???). So next time you want to smuggle 3k of heroin into Japan, just tell them you’re with your mom (or you have panties in your bag).
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u/KafeenHedake Mar 31 '23
So tell the cops that I have their mom's panties in my bag. I think I read that correctly.
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Mar 31 '23
Big hairy guy coming back from a trip to Thailand: "Please don't search my bag, it's full of panties"
Boarder guards: "That sounds reasonable, please continue."
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u/arcticblue Apr 01 '23
When I flew into Japan a couple year ago, my suitcase was a complete mess because I was moving in a hurry and shoved everything I could fit from my house into my suitcase. The customs guy wanted to look in my suitcase and as soon as he opened it up, he just nodded and closed it back up lol. He was not interested in trying to get everything to fit back in it.
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u/Scruffy11111 Mar 31 '23
Politeness? From a police officer???? What world is this??
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u/Best_Illustrator_137 Mar 31 '23
Yet they still randomly check citizens just like here..Ik it probably was more cause she’s foreign but seems like a normal thing.
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u/BasketofSharks Mar 31 '23
Yup Article 35 of the Constitution of Japan states, “[t]he right of all persons to be secure in their homes, papers and effects against entries, searches and seizures shall not be impaired except upon warrant issued for adequate cause and particularly describing the place to be searched and things to be seized … .” ( They had no right to be pulling stop and searches.
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u/JVLawnDarts Mar 31 '23
Not illegal to ask though as anyone can just ask to look through someone’s bag. Once she refuses the search and they demand it then it touches on a grey area especially since they ended up not pursuing the search
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u/championcomet Mar 31 '23
True but they worded it as if it wasn't an option.
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u/manbrasucks Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23
Perhaps, but it could be a translation thing and it was more of a question in japanese?
That said asking a foreigner whose less likely know they can decline is scummy too.
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Mar 31 '23
Reading the Constitution, not to mention the Code of Criminal Procedure, would give the impression that judicial warrants are required for this sort of search and seizure. But all constitutional rights are subject to the public welfare, and the police are acting pursuant to a different law — the Police Duties Execution Act of 1948.
This establishes that an officer “may stop and question any person for whom there is sufficient probable cause to suspect that the person has committed or is about to commit a crime or who is deemed to possess information on a crime which has already been committed or is about to be committed, judging reasonably on the basis of unusual behavior and/or other surrounding circumstance.” [...]
The law says nothing, however, about rifling through your briefcase.
The Supreme Court said it was OK in 1971 when police forcibly searched a bowling bag full of cash carried by a group of Japanese Red Army revolutionaries who had just robbed a bank at gunpoint (again), even though they refused to consent to the search, so naturally it stands to reason that it is also OK for the police to open your bag or delve into your pockets because you are walking around Roppongi past dark.
In 2021, Mahoro Furuno, a former elite police official, published a book titled “Shokumu Shitsumon” [police questioning], in which he explains how it all works. According to him, the police engaged in questioning are “hunting” for criminals. In recent years, slightly over 10% of arrests in Japan originated from police questioning people. The fact that you are not a criminal is irrelevant. They may just be seeking to confirm you are not and you might fit the description of an offender, have unwittingly emerged from a place known to be a locus of criminal activity, know something about an event or person linked to a crime, or just be acting or looking suspicious. [...]
An unspoken aspect of shokumu shitsumon as described by [Mahoro Furuno] thus seems to be that clearly innocent, harmless citizens need to tolerate being used as practice dummies for questioning by junior officers — which was clearly my own experience. Moreover, the combination of the Japanese criminal statutes being vaguely drafted, and “hunting” officers being under pressure to meet arrest quotas, means that being stopped, questioned and searched when you are (for example) carrying a kitchen knife, or even a pocket tool, may result in the situation becoming complicated, even if you have a perfectly good reason.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2022/08/18/issues/police-questioning-japan/
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u/Best_Illustrator_137 Mar 31 '23
Ah so just as corrupt as here in the states, got it
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u/GTC_Woona Mar 31 '23
I mean, possibly? I don't live there and I don't know how bad it can get, but I really don't want to downplay how shitty American cops are by comparing them to these bashful guys who backed off due to a pair of panties.
I feel like in the states, there's a 50% chance this ends in a power trip that clearly violates her rights, ends with her detained, full-body pat down, or some kind of ticket requiring a court appearance to dispute.
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u/noxx1234567 Mar 31 '23
Japanese police are next level brutal when they want to be , don't be fooled by their polite demeanor
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u/SilentPugz Mar 31 '23
I had one hold umbrella over me when raining . While the other ask to search me . They just patted me really quickly . I was amazed by their kindness so I took out everything in my pocket . I still don’t know why I did that lol .
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u/ai-sac Mar 31 '23
I would get stopped in Roppongi all the time by cops asking to lookin my backpack. Was with a buddy once and he told the cops, "well if you want to check my bag, shouldn't you frisk me?" He proceeds to start moaning in pleasure as the cop is frisking him getting beet red in the face with embarassment.
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u/bunnywithahammer Mar 31 '23
tbh i would also be freaked out. I mean, having fresh panties with you is a smart idea, common too. So if someone warns me of panties, I would think they are not clean in some grotesque manner and wonder why would any sane person carry it around. I don't give a fuck if my knickers are made of Cleopatras mummified skin, if I shat in them they are going in the trash.
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u/DroidRazer2 Mar 31 '23
Tbf, cleopatras mummified skin panties would put you on a watchlist
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u/CheckYourUnderwear Mar 31 '23
How is this a freakout? This sub is just an incubator for shitty self absorbed tiktokkers
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u/DarkandDanker Mar 31 '23
Agreed, they were nothing but polite, even too much so
I went to Japan and the cops spent hours trying to help me find a hostel
As shown here, they are very kind to foreigners
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u/oulker1980 Apr 01 '23
The police officers are good and kind and have respect for women. I hope all police officers have this kind of mindset.
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u/tfriedmann Mar 31 '23
In America those panties would be taken as evidence and mysteriously never make it to the station
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u/Eboyslayerjajaja Mar 31 '23
She then proceeds to grab multiple grenades out of her purse
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u/snay1998 Mar 31 '23
And uses the panties as a slingshot so everyone around her is too awkward and shy to run
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u/IHateEditedBgMusic Mar 31 '23
She's lucky she didn't encounter the now retired sensei who spends his free time just perving around, until he conveniently meets the young main character who's in need of training.
Watch out for that guy, he can sniff an untold number of panties before a nosebleed.
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u/RocksDeezNuts Mar 31 '23
“Ma’am what is in your bag that is preventing us from searching.”
“But I will be embarrassed, my worn panties are in here.”
“Well then, I’ll have to do standard procedure of securing your panties and a big whiff and sniff test will be administered to see if you are smuggling any illegal narcotics. Standard procedure.”
“Will k-9 be involved?”
“That won’t be necessary, I am highly trained. Giggity.”
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u/skylar_1982 Mar 31 '23
Out of curiosity, so they can search your bag whenever they want in Japan? Pretty sure this sub is not for this type of question though but at least I tried
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u/aroc91 Mar 31 '23
Your question was answered a couple hours ago-
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/127mnog/comment/jeeucwu/
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u/tiredofsametab Mar 31 '23
Yes and no. As /u/aroc91 points out, there are protections. BUUUUUT, the cops can just start surrounding you and not let you leave unless you consent. If you push past them, you've assaulted an officer. Not consenting can be seen as suspicious which can further escalate things. They may eventually give up, but it could take hours and hours. It's really kinda fucked.
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u/Schmich Mar 31 '23
The "do I look dangerous?" shouldn't matter if you want to be in a society without profiling.
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u/Hard_Tofu Mar 31 '23
American cops: “get the fuck down don’t move don’t move! We’re confiscating this for evidence… sniffs”
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u/karmagod13000 Mar 31 '23
this is all very confusing. i guess they were only asking to look in the bag and not demanding, but why? what if they persisted, does he have to show the inside of her bad and what happens if she didn't?
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u/ITSMETALKING Mar 31 '23
This was super stupid
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u/No-Document-932 Apr 01 '23
But what if the cops saw her panties that would be so embarrassing 🙊??!??!???? Those touch her private parts nobody is allowed to see those 🫣🙅🏻♀️!!!!!!!
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u/Ok-Pomegranate-3018 Mar 31 '23
When I did a brief stint in retail, security wanted to check my purse as I was leaving and I had pads/tampons in a zippered pouch and told him and he freaked tf out! Threw pouch back in my bag and waved me through! (Noted!)
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u/mrweatherbeef Mar 31 '23
I’m a bit surprised he didn’t double down on the request once he learned what was in her bag. Although he probably could just hit up a panty vending machine.
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u/kis_roka Mar 31 '23
I would have never thought the anime ish Japanese akwardness being around woman is actually real. Oh my god
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u/1rbryantjr1 Mar 31 '23
What did he mean when he crossed his arms like this emoji “🙅🏻♂️. Like, does it mean something to Japanese people. It isn’t something people do where I’m from. I always wondered what it meant.
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u/Victorystardust Mar 31 '23
It means "no", so he used it to mean "never mind" in that situation or "cancel"
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u/Skirt-Present Apr 01 '23
Not every place is USA where a warrant is needed but saying your parties are in the bag seems to be a great way of getting them to back off. May need to try that sometime and I’m a dude. 😄😂. Probably end up getting locked up if I try it in the wrong country or end up with a date!
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u/boy_with_reddit Mar 31 '23
police would be pointing a gun at you already in america in this situation
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