Why Japan Arrests Foreigners

this video is brought to you by squarespace Japan one of the safest countries in the world in fact when it comes to crime in 2017 the Japan crime rate hit record lows with a total of nine hundred and fifteen thousand recorded crimes when compared to the u.s. with almost tripled the population had a total of eight point nine million recorded crimes for me there's no better place to visit or even live and probably why I've been here for more than 15 years so if you've never been in Japan then I definitely recommend visiting once at least in your life but before you visit you might want to know why Japan arrests foreigners well the simple answer is when many foreigners come over they simply fail to understand Japanese laws their severity and the overall judicial system until it's too late and believe me I've seen and heard enough stories of foreigners getting arrested that I wanted to make this video for you guys so when you visit Japan you don't end up arrested because the last thing you want to do especially come in Japan is get arrested I won't be doing this video by myself but I've actually invited a real Japanese trial lawyer to help answer some of our questions today without further ado let's get this thing started so you guys finally here can you just tell us a little bit about yourself hi I'm you go I'm you guys shahbazi I'm a Japanese lawyer I like to consider myself as a triangle lawyer okay and I'm doing a lot of criminal cases so today I would like to explain you about the Japanese justice system so maybe before we like start about all of the different situations that foreigners could get themselves arrested for maybe you can kind of like share with me how the justice system overall kind of works here in Japan okay so if you get arrested please we'll get you in custody for 72 hours and within that 72 hours they have to decide whether to detain you or not the prosecutor will file a request and if the judge approves such a request then you'll get detained for 10 days and this 10 days it could be extended for 10 more days so in total the detainment will last 23 days and if you're a foreigner and you don't have a permanent residency it's likely that you'll get arrested and get detained for 23 days for one crime of course if you have committed another crime and if they arrest you for that that will be 46 so if you say you like shoplift and then you also assaulted someone yes yes clear the thing about the Japanese justice system is in most of the other countries you can't request for a bail if you get arrested so probably in the United States you can you will get out of it in 24 hours yeah probably but in Japan we don't have that system you only can request a bail after you get indicted you can see a lawyer but you cannot get bailed out you cannot get outside the cell you have to stay in custody for 23 days maybe after the 3 days you can meet your family ok 50 minutes each day and if you get indicted you may get detained for a longer or they release you if you get arrested for doing shoplifting for example or a bar fight it's a minor crime but if you're foreigner you don't have to permit a residency there is the risk that you will get detained for 23 days so just let me clarify this gay we feel like you've committed a crime then they'll take you to the police station yes they'll hold you for 3 days they don't the charge you with a crime no basically they'll just interrogate you and within the 3 days if they don't charge you with a crime then they have to let you go right or they ask you for detainment up to 20 days off 10 days plus 10 days what happens if you don't speak a language well there's an interpreter but 23 days it's I think it's outrageous some people lose their jobs lose their families what happens during that 23 days yeah the police will do some investigation and you'll get interrogated no emails no telephone and although you have the right to remain silence in Japan the authorities comes true that you have to be there when the officer questions you so that's difference because my understanding is other countries if you have the right to remain silent you don't have to go through the interrogation right so that's also a big difference so doing get interrogation you you have to you would be in the room with officer and they will throw in questions and they will put pressure on you well they will say like it's better for you to plead guilty and they are accusing you for a crime and although you have the right to remain silence it's really difficult hard to exercise it right also one more thing the lawyer is not allowed to be present during the interrogation in other countries usually the lawyers are with you but not in Japan they don't allow that here in Japan so a lot of pressure and that's why a lot of people confess even confess what's not true and thus the the conviction rate of 99.9 percent and this is called hostage justice yeah what's that called in Japanese oh Jesus you go back they basically coerce a confession yes because if you for shoplifting maybe they would just tell you not to do it anymore or maybe a fine but if you plead not guilty they will keep you for a longer period after they indict you you will be detained and sometimes it could end up a year because they don't they owe you out the judge won't approve it they want your confession that's why it's called positive justice you're better off just confessing well a lot of people will think in a way it's in a way irrational what about an embassy for example can they do anything for you well they can come and they can probably give your message to your family but not much all right so let me just take a quick break right now and thank our sponsors Squarespace without them I wouldn't be able to make these videos for you guys so I've been using Squarespace for the last seven years to start up all the different businesses I've had it's just been so easy to get my online presence out there in fact when we quitted Tokyo zebra I let Michael who's never managed or built a web site in her life and it was super easy for her to use what's really nice is that they have all these different templates then you can go choose so if any of you are looking to actually get a web site out there in your online press out there you can go to squarespace.com and try it for free and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com for it slash Paulo from Tokyo and get 10% off your first purchase on your domain or website it's that easy let's like kind of talk about theft that's one of the common reasons why foreigners get arrested here in Japan yes so someone goes into a shop they go and like take an item the shopkeeper sees them they'd get stopped what's the process there well they will call for police they will take you to a lease office nearby and probably you'll get arrested detained and the process I explained to you earlier in the 23 days and also if you ask for a lawyer they usually have interpreter but there is a language barrier and usually if it's that and if she's pleading guilty and if he has a lawyer we are trying to make a settlement did the victim trying to compensate but recently a lot of stores those big stores yeah clothing stores or merchandise they refused to sell the reason for that is because the damage cost by shoplifting it's a huge huge amount they don't want to settle anymore and they want to be more strict on the punishment like it's a warning sign to everyone else that's trying to shoplift the difference between the Japanese and the foreigners is the foreigners especially those sightseeing tours yes they don't have a permanent residency there is a risk of flight if they don't live in Japan so that gives reason authority to arrest and to detain them if anything if you get convicted yeah for example you you're guilty but it was a minor offense so or tells you to pay fine but you already spent like a year in jail well the crime you committed was a minor Oh all crime but but still they will put you in jail off year two or even longer until you yes many times people ask me what should I confess even I haven't done it but as a lawyer it's it's really hard to say there's one thing I wanted to talk about it was two roommates and one of the roommates actually got some drugs sent to their apartment because both of them are living in the same space they both got detained or arrested I think it's a matter of how strong that evidence is if there's no evidence they cannot arrest you and there's no reason to arrest you so there must be some kind of evidence the question is how strong is that evidence for example of what you told me now they found drugs where those two people were living right yeah so there is suspicion but it was only sent to one person the other guy says right of course if the situation's show for example if they go through the computer they will check your email and if they find like email exchanges with the other person and the person who sent those drugs then probably you can say I didn't do it and there's no evidence they will release you or they will decide not to indict you but what happens if you don't give them your password oh that that's this interesting case on there for example iPhone if you don't give them your password that's number they cannot open it not even the FBI can open it so there are people who refuse to use their password so you can do that in computer as well you don't have to give them your password no what about your thumbprint you can refuse what happens if they force your thumb onto the phone they are not allowed to do that thumbprint yeah or refusing to give your ID or your eating test not allowing them to search your bags you have the right to do that and if you have a strong will then probably you can go over there but it's not easy for how there's a regular people so let me get this straight so if someone gets caught with drugs within those 23 days if they do confess to that crime and then once they're indicted the court process how long could take well if you're pleading guilty it will be two month to three months okay so on top of the maybe you know three weeks you've spent you can another two months in jail now if you're in Tokyo it will be Tokyo Detention Center well you can request a veil you can request that at that time they frequently ask if you have somebody who could pay for the bill and if you have a friend somebody who so you have two to three months for the trial and once that's completed they sent in to you you get sentenced for this a half year six month or a year with is three years of probation yeah but then there's the visa issue that's a different matter the immigration standard cancel your visa and then they will ask you to come to the immigration office and there you get contained again how long usually well if you can afford your own to get then not long otherwise you will have to wait until there's a special and airplane for deportation that's that's pretty serious right it's serious yes actually not the crime in itself that is serious I think it's the system I've seen people foreigner they got arrested for shoplifting anything a rice bowl for one rice ball he was detained for almost a year and after that he was deported deportation so do you think marijuana cocaine is drugs is that something that's common for foreigners to get arrested well not only foreigners also for Japanese people but it happens often theft and drug even a bar fight for example if you were finding I guess the Japanese and the police comes of course they will listen to this Japanese guy because they can communicate with us yeah person okay well you can't explain your story they can explain their story the police will just probably here is that one side so what do they do they can arrest you the same with the drugs so if the Japanese person says oh he hit me first he assaulted me the police can just arrest you yes but there's also cameras around so if you could prove that your story is true so if you do get in a fight and you did hit someone first you're gonna go down this path there's a possibility then of course it doesn't mean necessarily that you get arrested they may let you go yes so let's talk about graffiti okay I'm in Shibuya I see it all around is it that bad well you can get arrested yeah if you get caught doing that and the st. get thinking happened three days arrests and then 20 days of detention but usually within that 23 days and if he's pleading guilty yeah we will try to contact those owners in the building and negotiate with them and getting to a settlement if this succeeds they will be released but graffiti is pretty serious yes it's not just like oh I just painted something no forgive me no and it's also I've seen some cases those people I met were misled by the false information information says Shibuya is a free city they are welcome to do graffiti so graffiti artists they gather to Shibuya and do the paintings and the police comes by randomly hello arrested oh really that's happened because they think they are welcome because that because you see it everywhere well theft or graffiti fighting drugs yeah well maybe not drugs but other things there are also a crime in other countries not only Japan yeah but what makes it so serious it's not the crime itself it's the system someone does commit one of these crimes here in Japan what should they do what you should do it really depends on the situation so I can't really say like you should do this but you ask the police officer and they have to call for a lawyer first time it's free is it okay to not say anything until my clients do remain scientists there's no point in giving information to your opponent right so if you guys have any more questions on this I'll leave some information in the description of the video thanks for your time I appreciate it thank you thank you so if you guys have any question about what we discussed today then leave it in the comment section and maybe if we get enough comments and interesting questions then maybe you go join me for another video and we can answer all those questions

Channel: Paolo fromTOKYO

Views: 926,932

Rating: 4.8103828 out of 5

Keywords: Paolo, japan, japan guide, japan laws, japanese laws, japanese laws and rules, japanese justice system, japanese judicial system, japanese police, japanese police arrests, japanese lawyer, hostage justice, japanese detainment, tourist arrested in japan, japan crime, police interrogation, police, japan conviction rate, japanese interrogation, police abuse, crime rate, graffiti in japan, japanese jail, japanese jail system, japanese prison system, foreigner arrested in japan

Id: r1ZLGqL1FMo

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AlasterMyst]

Holding people for even 24 hours without charge, much less holding people in prison/jail without conviction, as a general rule is barbaric and should be a human rights violation.