The police refuse to reveal what they will do if a person refuses, but Japan has no writ of habeas corpus and can hold “suspects” for up to 21 days without charge if they choose to do so. During that time, they can subject you to intense interrogation and deprive you of food, water, and sleep in order to coerce confessions.If they believe you refused to submit to illegal searches because you are guilty, they will certainly place such pressure upon you. There is a very strong sense that only the guilty refuse to cooperate in Japan. The notion of privacy rights is not nearly as strong here as it is in America. It is clearly illegal in Japan to conduct searches of any kind without a warrant, but given the liberal powers afforded the police, they can coerce you into agreeing to any sort of search. The mere threat of being hauled into jail for three weeks and being held simply for refusing to cooperate is very real.
The poor economy has fueled social difficulties in Japan such as random mass stabbings, increased drug use among Japanese college students, and tax revenue shortfalls. None of these problems have involved foreigners, but the police and the government have taken “measures” to correct the problems that mainly or entirely target foreigners. They clearly seek to give the appearance of solving these problems at the expense of the civil rights and liberties of those who are not Japanese.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
Japan, If I remember correctly, is the country that forbde foreigners to enter for 3 centuries or so until the 1850's.
This is not th first article you have written about Japanes intolerance of foreigners and xenophobia. One from quite a while ago still generates comments, albeit of the stupidest kind.... It might be time to consider flipping the Japanese and their bigotry the bird, and finding a friendlier place to call home.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
Okay...now let's look at the other side of the story.
Back in 2000 I was in a three-day port visit in Sasebo, Japan - I was excited because that was the only time I'd ever had the chance to visit there.
While I was on the American base in Sasebo (at the enlisted club called the 'Triple Play'), my camera was stolen. Frankly, I wasn't surprised - I'd taken my eyes off it for a couple and it was gone...and I knew that it was my fault for not keeping a closer eye on it.
There's a longstanding reputation about the way the Japanese viewed Americans at our military bases there - if there was a crime committed, they'd look at us first, and for good reason.
This sounds prejudicial against us, but I saw the reason why in a one-day tour to Nagasaki.
The first place we went was to a 'Sea Tortoise Shell Shop', a tourist trap where everything for sale was made out of sea tortoise shell. In the front display window was a clipper ship made completely out of sea tortoise shell, and its price was 10,000,000 yen - or about $100,000. I looked around - the store was on a side street, no night lights were evident, and there was no apparent alarm system on the window. That begged the question - just how long would this $100K item have stayed safe in a similar spot in America?
Later I and two shipmates were trolling downtown looking for a place to eat. It was early afternoon and we were finding that many places were closed between lunch and dinner. The thing is, these restaurants didn't lock their doors. We only found out they were closed when we'd walk inside and see no one - not even any employees to keep an eye on things.
Yes, there's corruption in Japan like anywhere else, and it will get worse as time goes on; and YES, they've got their own problems like those who deny the Rape of Nanking or their culpability in WWII, and YES the Japanese are perhaps the most racist first-world culture (which racism would be a good subject for a whole 'nother article)...
...but overall compared to America, it's a FAR safer place, a far LESS corrupt place to live.
And they've got a FAR better and cheaper (!) health care system - you know, that really evil socialistic communist fascist Universal Health Care (they go to the doctor on average three times as much as Americans do, and pay FAR less). Sorry...couldn't resist.
Sayonara for now!