{"id":4257,"date":"2009-08-27T01:04:15","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T16:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2012-11-23T09:35:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T00:35:47","slug":"sitys-japan-times-confirms-that-74-year-old-tourist-was-indeed-incarcerated-for-10-days-for-carrying-a-pocket-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4257","title":{"rendered":"SITYS: Japan Times confirms that 74-year-old tourist WAS indeed incarcerated for 10 days for carrying a pocket knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0After a very nasty discussion on Debito.org last month<\/a>, regarding the validity of a story by Brian Hedge that a 74-year-old tourist was incarcerated for more than a week just for holding a pocket knife, the Japan Times has come through (The only media to bother — subscribe to the paper, everyone! \u00a0Who else you gonna call?) and confirmed that it actually did happen.<\/p>\n

It sure would be nice for the anonymous nasties who raked people over the coals to capitulate now. \u00a0How ’bout it? \u00a0Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/p>\n

==================================<\/p>\n

The Japan Times Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009
\nTourist’s 10-day detention rapped
\nLawyers say elderly American should never have been jailed for holding small pocketknife
\nBy MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer (excerpt)<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/nn20090826a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n

It all started when an American tourist asked a police officer for directions to the Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Californian, 74, could never have imagined the officer would reply to his question with: “Do you have a knife?”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

He could never have dreamed, either, that his possession of a pocketknife, which he calls a “customary personal item,” would be illegal in Japan and lead to 10 nights in detention, the man told The Japan Times during a recent interview.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“It was unpleasant and disappointing,” he said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The actions by police, including asking the man if he was carrying a knife, are questionable, lawyers said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In particular, they say 10 days in detention is problematic \u2014 although unfortunately in Japan not uncommon.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“I seriously doubt the man needed to be detained at all,” said lawyer Kazuharu Suga, who has been assigned to defend the American.
\n“Police should have confiscated the knife and released him after getting answers for why he came to Japan, where and how long he plans to stay in Japan and how he got the knife,” Suga said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, in cases like this, 10 days of detention is not unusual,” he said, adding that a foreigner could be held longer if police have linguistic trouble communicating with the suspect…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at:
\nhttp:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/nn20090826a4.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The Japan Times Community Page ran a series of responses on Tuesday from readers, many outraged, by this treatment. Here they are:<\/p>\n

============================
\nOne pocket knife, nine days’ lockup
\nFollowing are a selection of readers’ responses to the July 28 Hotline to Nagatacho column headlined “Pocket knife lands tourist, 74, in lockup.”
\nThe Japan Times Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Truly a horror story…”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest at http:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/cgi-bin\/fl20090825hs.html<\/a><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a very nasty discussion on Debito.org last month, regarding the validity of a story by Brian Hedge that a 74-year-old tourist was incarcerated for more than a week just for holding a pocket knife, the Japan Times has come through (The only media to bother — subscribe to the paper, everyone! Who else you gonna call?) and confirmed that it actually did happen. The Japan Times Community Page also ran a series of responses on Tuesday from readers, many outraged, by this treatment. Here they are:<\/p>\n

It sure would be nice for the anonymous nasties who raked people over the coals to capitulate now. How ’bout it? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,5,26,10,11,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussions","category-human-rights","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-sitys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}