You ain't got nuffin' on me...

Today, I was stopped by the police. Considering that I've been here for nearly two years, I'm lucky that this is my first brush with the law. I was on my bike, approaching some roadworks when they hailed me to stop. First they told me it was dangerous, then asked me if I was going home. They then informed me that they wanted to check the registration number of my bike, presumably to make sure I hadn't stolen it. It's a good job I told them that it was a Christmas present from my girlfriend, and therefore would have been registered in her name. They radioed whichever bureaucrat they had to talk to, who checked the appropriate documents and confirmed that it was indeed registered to the person whose name I gave them.

It could be argued that these guardians of society were just doing their job, but as any disgruntled ex-pat in this country might point out, I was stopped because I'm not Japanese.

Recently there was a bit of a hoo-ha over the magazine Gaijin Hanzai Ura File (Foreigner Crime File), an undeniably racist publication that depicts foreigners committing crimes across the nation, touts the statistic of 47,000 felonies committed by non-Japanese each year and, according to Radio Australia News, asks

"...whether they (foreigners) should be allowed to devastate Japan."

The chain of convenience stores, Family Mart, pulled copies of the magazine off their shelves in response to complaints from customers. Considering that foreigners make up a tiny percent of the population, one can take comfort in the probability that it was Japanese customers doing the complaining. However, in the wake of such a row, it's still easy to feel threatened, especially with the apparent resurfacing of Nationalism in Japan

Claims like "47,000 crimes a year" can be misleading though. Whilst foreign crime is increasing, so is the foreign population. Also, according to statistics found at Japan Reference, over half of the 20,007 foreign nationals arrested in 2003 were apprehended for "offences" such as drug use, prostitution, speeding etc, as opposed to "crimes" like murder, robbery, arson, rape etc. Most of those arrested for offences were charged with overstaying a visa. 50% of the serious crimes were thefts, whilst only 477 arrests were for vicious crimes. Also, what is recorded is the number of arrests, rather than convictions.

There is the added problem of the language barrier - whilst most disputes between Japanese can be sorted out amongst themselves without the need for Police intervention, if one side of the conflict doesn't speak the language, it's inevitable that at some point, the Police are going to be called upon, thus adding another foreign "crime" to the pile.

According to the Instituto de Estudos Japoneses, promotion in the Police force is determined

"...as a rule, by recommendation on the basis of evaluation of their ability to carry out their duties, their experiences and their record of service."

Reading between the lines, and considering how important appearance is over here, if an officer is seen to be making a great effort, then that promotion is within their grasp. At the end of the day, if they can produce a folder bulging with potential offenders, stopped in the nick of time, then surely they must be doing something right. I, and quite possibly many others like me, are easy targets. My mistake of riding a bike in the wrong place at the wrong time, although not an offence, is no doubt going to go on a file somewhere and resurface in the next deliberately inflammatory publication as one of 47,000 "crimes" committed by foreigners each year.

Their investigation complete, they thanked me, and before sending me on my way, advised that I carry my rucksack on my shoulder rather than the basket in front of my bike, lest an "unknown person" apprehend it. If only they'd told me how to take precautions against ambitious or bored policemen.