Crime in Japan
The Japanese have
an almost unique system of policing which despite its embracing of high
tech in most of its processess it is also a strangely quaint mirroring
of the British police prior to the 1980's from which I will draw comparisons
for which I apologize to North American readers.
Japan has the lowest crime rate of any of the major industrialised
countries in the world; coupled with a detection rate which is the envy
of the civilized world, it would appear on paper that Japan is a utopia
with regard to crime. But all is not as it seems.
The Japanese like any society past or present has its own
almost unique profile of crimes with most crimes recognised as such by
all societies(murder,robbery,dropping litter etc.) Japan does not recognise
or account other problems which would drastically change the paper figures
and bring a more realisting picture of the situation.
The situation with regard to the Japanese not recognise an
offence is best exemplified by the chikans who would in any other country
would be doing at least 3-5 years for persistant sexual assault remembering
that sexual assault is but one step down from rape but because of Japan's
extreme "one of the boys"culture it is recognised as a crime only on the
statue book.
The other issue which is missing from Japanese figures is
that civil law is outside the perview of the police and are handled by other
agencies and do not appear on the end figures.
So why has this situation arouse and the answer is probably in
the structure of Japanese law enforcement which was founded on the basic
model created by sir Robert Peel and has kept to its basic original structure,
principals and biasts more than any of its contemperies in modern societies
inheriting both its strengths and its weaknesses.
Basic unit is the police box( koban's in urban areas and chuzaisho's
in rural areas unfortunatly only as Doctor who's TARDIS in Britain) and
not the patrol car and are very similar to the original peel principal of
the section house with a compliment of 12 uniformed officers with a sergeant(
junsa-bucho) and 3 policemen( junsa) on a four shift rotation working
the local beats and in my opinion give the japanese police one of its greatest
strengths and a lesson to other modern police that you can learn more
about your area on foot or on a bicycle than driving round at high speeds
trying to look cool in a patrol car.The junkai-ren which is probably the
best idea to come out of Japanese law enforcement in that this twice a
year residence survey forefills in one swoop the two main functions of
the uniformed patrol officer that of crime prevention and collation of
local information.However the main weakness is that it takes probably
two years before an officer really gets to know his area.
The next one up are the police stations which are similar to British
divsional stations and are the headquarters for the local kobans and home
for officers of the more specialilized sections who carry out roles such
as traffic and criminal detection and because they consider themselves on
a higher plane have there own versions of the british nickname "woodentops"
too describe uniformed beat officers for their poorer detection rates but
that is not uniforms principal function
Above these are the ivory towers of Tokyo metropolitan police
department and prefecturial police headquarters the home of the highest
ranking officers such as the keishi-sokan(superintendant general of the
Tokyo metropolitan department) and keshi-kan(superintendant supervisor)
equal to met commissioners and provincial chief constables respectivly.
So where do the problems really set in, firstly when the post
war police were set in 1948 with a new police law the police became limited
in their duties and many social problems other police forces in the world
help to tackle come outside the scope of the Japanese police this makes
the figures look good but does not help solve the problems.
Secondly the training system is so class room oriented probably
because with all officers must be at least high school graduate and 40%
having a degree from a four year university.High school graduates spend
one year of police shool,three months field work and then six months of
training and disscussion for college graduates its eight months,three mnoths
and four months with the curriculum set by the national police agency.You
do not get a coppers nose or the mysterious meathods of "the ways and means
act" fom a book but only from experience on the beat and with the exception
of fraud the last man to be caught by using a book was Al Capone.
Thirdly 98.1% of officers are male,come on chaps thats why some
things don't prosicuted because it's boys will be boys, a villains does
not show discrimination on the grounds of sex so why should the police
show discrimination.Female officers are normally not allowed to carry firearms(what
do they expect them to use bad language!) and the old predjudice of only
limited duties the shame being that nothing deflaits the "one of the boys"
more than a wpc slapping on the plum duffs (hand cuffs).They can do the
job as well in most cases and better in some.
Finally although extremely polite to outsiders the Japanese attitude
to outsiders breaking the law seems strange.From the killing of Charles
Richardson in 1862 (early example of road rage) to demanding and getting
suspect marine Kurt K. Billie for trial in a Japanese court when a perfectly
good court martial would have been carried out by the USMC although the Japanese
goverment constantly refuses to extradite Japanese citizens for crimes committed
abroad but tries them in Japan and if guilty imprisons them in Japanese
prisons seems very partisan at best.
Oh yes, the thought for the day if you ladies have problems with
chikans on a crowed trains do not try punching they isn't the room try
stamping on the top of the ankle joint because 1) it hurts more, 2)you can
claim it was an accidental stumble on a moving train, 3).it doesn't half
cramp their style.
Chris Cutts
Sexual Assault, Feminism
and Double Standards
Feminism: "the principle that women
should have the same rights and chances as men."
-Longman Dictionary
Feminist: "someone who believes in FEMINISM."
-Longman Dictionary
Tokyo:JL
I am a feminist. I always have been. It only seemed logical from
a very young age that women and men
should have equal rights and chances in all things. What I am disturbed
by is what passes for feminism at times,
and some of the double standards we seem to turn a blind eye to, just
because a woman did it.
Bullying at times, passes for feminism.
I sometimes hear women praising very aggressive, blunt and bullying
women for being good feminists. Sorry but they aren't! Take a look
at the definitions above. It doesn't say anything
about bullying. Feminism is about preserving or fighting for equal
rights. At times women who call themselves
feminists, and those who like them, are mislead about what is happening.
I often meet a woman, let's call
her Megumi. She is a manager for a large Japanese company. Megumi for
some
reason, enjoys putting down men. She has a penchant for making jokes
that aren't really jokes-- they are attacks.
She engages in other verbal abuse that comes across in a quiet voice
and often ends in a chuckle, but is really a
verbal left hook. She tries to pick at the armour of many of the men
around her. She also believes in equal rights for
women like I do. Unfortunately, her behaviour doesn't help the cause
of feminism and she lessens her own chances for promotion by her
treatment of men. She is a bully. Yet an American friend of mine
praised her, "I like Megumi because she is a strong feminist."
There's that misused word again. Feminists believe in equal rights,
but by bullying men she cannot call
herself a feminist. She isn't treating men equally. Ghandi once said
that his life was his message to the world.
Feminists too like Ghandi need to be good examples for the cause. The
feminists who fight for their rights, and treat men well
are the best examples of feminists. They are well rounded people.
They don't attack all men. They argue against
the men and women who are trying to hold them down. Let's stop calling
bullies feminists, it hinders the cause.
An Australian male friend of mine
was sexually assaulted while getting off a train in Tokyo. This woman
grabbed
his testicles and squeezed them and it hurt. She proceeded to get
on the train. My friend of course was shocked. He didn't
take any action except to tell his story.
Another friend, a Canadian woman
was on a train in Kanagawa. She was sexually assaulted too. A Japanese
'salaryman' grabbed her bottom. She turned around and told him to
cut it out, then he imitated her. The Japanese
man was clearly a jerk, drunk or both. She pretended to turn around
and ignore him, but flew back at him, throwing
a right cross and decking the guy. Babies and women screamed, and
his friends tried to hall off Melinda as she
had jumped on top of the guy and proceeded to pummel him some more.
She is a well built lady! It didn't end there.
The man and his friends got off at the next station followed by Melinda,
and she jumped him again and pummelled
him some more on the train platform. The train station authorities
came on the scene but Melinda was allowed to leave.
The police were not called. Why not? Clearly the man had been beaten
up.
You may think right on! The guy
had it coming to him; as I initially thought--Melinda being a good friend.
However,
turn it around for a moment. Let's say my Australian friend had attacked
his female sexual assailant. Would he have been allowed
to leave? Not a chance! The police would have been called and
he would have been hauled away to the police
station. Probably he would do time in a Japanese prison, or if lucky
deported. Why? Because he's a man and men
shouldn't be violent to women.
Indeed women shouldn't be violent
either, but we seem to tolerate more violence from them. If a woman
is violent we think she had good reason to be; as the train station
authorities apparently did by letting Melinda go.
The fact was they couldn't communicate with her due to her poor Japanese
and their English, yet they didn't bother
to ask for an English speaking policeman or at least a translator to
hear her story.
There is also chance that the Japanese
salaryman owed up to his sexual assault and the train station authorities
called it even.
Yet if my Aussie friend had beaten up the "ball grabber," we all know
that it wouldn't have been called even. He would have faced hours of questioning
by the police, likely followed by a court case, conviction, and prison
time for assault and battery. The retaliation not fitting the original
sexual assault. Yet Melinda walked free and continues to teach in America.
We all know that violence is not
the answer. If you are sexually assaulted there are ways of dealing with
it
like alerting the train authorities or the train station personnel.
You can even use gestures to show what
happened you don't need to speak Japanese. You can have the police
called and press charges.
Going over the top, and brutalizing someone whether you are a man or
a woman is wrong and should not be tolerated.
Remember Ghandi's truth!
Kevin Burns
|
The Death of a Buddhist Monk
"Okamoto's fiancee arrived outside the convenience store where
they had agreed to meet at just after 10:30 p.m. Five minutes later Okamoto
called her on her mobile phone. "I'll be there any minute," he said.
Fifteen minutes later he had yet to arrive. In the meantime, a blur of
bosozoku bikes had raced by. Used to seeing them around, she gave them
little thought, and headed back to her nearby apartment to wait.
A siren's wail started her running; first to the convenience
store, then towards the spot where an ambulance had stopped 100 metres
away. Alongside it, she saw a body face down. Its legs and torso were
in the gutter, its head in the road. As she got closer, she saw blood,
a deep indentation in the back of the skull and a crater above the left
eye. "Priest dies in beating," the Kanagawa Shimbun, a local daily, declared
in a headline the next day. "--Velisarios Kattoulas, Far Eastern Economic
Review
The Tribes of Midnight
Kanagawa, Japan
Hiroyuki Sakamoto talks with Suzukisan:
"You should come out with us on Friday night
Sakamotosan, we have a lot of fun! We cruise around on our 'bikes'
(motorcycles), drink
beer and meet girls. Hope to see ya!"
Hiroyuki ponders this invitation.
Everyone has told him the bosozoku or Japanese bike gangs
are dangerous and a dead end road to oblivion. Not the kind of thing
a Japanese mother wishes
for her youngsters. Suzukisan seems so nice however, and Friday
nights have been pretty boring
of late. Hiroyuki doesn't have many friends, and the thought of
spending another Friday night
studying for high school entrance exams doesn't enthuse him.
On Friday night, Hiroyuki approaches
the local bosozoku gang hanging out in front of Daiyuzan Station.
One of the gang members is hastling the frustrated O'bento ladies,
and preventing her from closing the shutter to her
shop. A tall American accosts him and he relents, but marks the
American in his head as a potential target
for assault at a later more convenient date and place; preferably
when he will be outnumbered ten to one he smiles
inwardly. The American knows he could be a target, he has lived
in Japan long enough to know that, and his Japanese
girlfriend had the unfortunate experience of being rammed by one of
the bikers one night. As she tried to
dial for the police to report the accident, her cell phone was ripped
from her hand and thrown into a rice field.
"We will kill you if you report this accident. We have your licence
plate number, we can find you." This incident still angers
the California native, so it gives him satisfaction to scold this
repulsive bosozoku. They wouldn't dare
attack me he thinks. He hopes. He finds it a little difficult
to sleep that night. Maybe another beer will help.
Hiroyuki is welcomed on Friday night.
All of the members ask him about himself and are very kind and caring
about him.
"Do you want to sit on my bike, it's the latest Honda?" one asks him.
The prettiest girl in the gang comes up
and tells him he is "kakoi," -cute. He hasn't had this much fun
in a long time. Not only that, these people
listen to him. Before the night is over he is asked if he wants
to join. He unhesitatingly says, "yes."
He thinks people have the wrong impression about the bosozoku.
They must not know about them like
he does--never having spent any time with them like he has. They
seem a far cry from the gang that baseball
batted a 24 year old Buddhist monk to death only months before; leaving
his fiance and parents to
ask why? Why my son? Why my fiance? Why didn't the police do anything
to prevent this tragedy?
Why don't they act? The same gang attacked a local businessman
and father, beating him until he
begged, "yamete," --stop. Some of the members still gloat about
this crime in front of the cigarette
machine, embellishing the story with whiny imitations of the salaryman's
protestations.
Could these really be the same people
Hiroyuki asked himself? And if they
are really so bad, why do the police let them continue to drive around?
They can't be so bad he decides.
The next Friday comes in slow anticipation
and Hiroyuki is formally welcomed into the gang at the party that
night. The night starts off well but after they go to the riverside
things turn ugly. Hiroyuki is told that to be
a member of the gang you have to be tough, so he will have to fight
every member of the gang to prove his
worth. Not ever having had a fight in his life Hiroyuki is badly
beaten up. He is told he can never leave the
gang. "Don't even think about it!" chimes one member. "You try to
quit or you tell anyone we beat you up
and your mother and sister will be next. We know who they are,
and where they live. Here are their photos
if you doubt us." Hiroyuki is horrified, but he cannot quit. He
can't get beaten like this again, and he can't
bring the same thing onto his family. So in typical Japanese style
he "gamans"--perseveres.
Slowly he is initiated into committing
crimes. Stealing from convenience stores, houses in the neighbourhood,
and bullying students at school for money. While he continues to
attend junior high school, his cell phone rings
during class time, and his local leader tells him to be at the next
"meeting." His frazzled junior high school
English teacher is too scared to raise a word in protest, knowing
Hiroyuki's gang connections. He also knows
about the teacher who was mysteriously pushed down the stairs in Yokohama
a few years ago. Just as
mysteriously it never made the papers. It would be too much bad
press for the schools in Yokohama the rumour
goes. The beating of a pregnant teacher in Matsuda, just an urban
rumour, or a horrifying fact?
His friend, a teacher in the next town swears it's true. He doesn't
want to ponder it.
It is just too scary when he has to face these members everyday in
his classes. The schools in New
York don't seem so different afterall he decides.
Another American, we'll call him Dave,
goes to the local police station with his Japanese wife.
They complain that the bosozoku make noise every night on their street,
people are beaten, and we have
children he worries. The policeman is somewhat sympathetic but
patiently explains this is not America.
He has children too and his street is noisy as well, but if he makes
a mistake while trying to arrest gang
members, he could lose his job. "In Fujisawa a good policeman lost
his job. He was trying to arrest the bosozoku and one of the gang members
drove his motorcycle into a fence. He was injured. The policeman was
fired. The citizens protested, they signed
a petition in support of the hapless policeman saying they were proud
of what he had done, trying to end the
assault on their ears. It was to no avail, the man has a family
and he is out of work. It is difficult to find a job
in this economy right Davesan?" Dave has to agree but cannot fathom
this country sometimes.
Why can a bike gang member get away
with driving dangerously, not stopping for the police and creating noise
pollution?
Why is the policeman punished? It should be that as long as the
police use reasonable methods of catching
criminals, the police will not be punished if a criminal is injured
fleeing a crime. If the rules prevent the police from
acting, why aren't the rules changed giving the police more power?
Surely the people want their sleep to be
more restful and their neighbourhoods safer? Why don't people get
involved? His long suffering wife listens
to his frustration, knowing he is right, but unable to do anything
but listen.
The Japanese people are patient.
But somewhere someone decides he has had enough. His wife screams,
"No, don't go out there," but he shakes her off. If the police
won't handle it he will. He walks out into the
street in his pajamas, he would look comical if the situation weren't
so serious. "Pipe down!" he yells to
the bike gang assaulting his and the whole neighbourhood's ears for
blocks around. The bikers circle and
surround him. His crying wife watches from their bedroom window
as he is attacked by a 17 year old.
The attacking high school student knows that what he is doing is wrong,
but he also knows that under Japanese
law, you will not be severely punished for killing someone when you
are 17--some time spent at a reform school perhaps
is all he would receive, even if he is caught. He will also rise
in the ranks of his bike gang.
Another father lies dead on the street
in front of his home. Another family is left asking why. Another policeman,
feeling guilty, sits in his koban (police box) wishing he could do
more but knowing he can't. I have a family to feed he
decides, I can't risk losing this job. Besides the law doesn't
punish these punks anyway he knows.
A Suzuki blares down the street, waking babies and overworked salarymen.
The tribes of midnight, mark
their territory, and speed off into the dawn.
Kevin Burns
Letters to the Editor
& Other Opinions in Our Forum
"...bike gangs like the one
that killed Okamoto remain the most visible sign of the breakdown in
law and order in Yokohama. When bosozoku first took to the streets in
the mid 1960s, they were relatively tame. However, as Japan's birth rate
declined and bosozoku grew smaller, they began to defend with violence
turf that they had once guarded solely by force of numbers. The National
Police Agency says serious crime by bosozoku has more than doubled since
1996, and now accounts for a stunning 80% of all serious crime committed
by juveniles. Moreover, yakuza organized-crime syndicates increasingly
target bosozoku as buyers for the amphetamines and other drugs that
are now their biggest source of income. " --Velisarios
Kattoulas, Far Eastern Economic Review
|
A Father Dies in Flames
Tokyo,JL
Yoshida enraged, leaves the room. He comes back carrying a
large can of kerosene. The cap is already off,
and Tanaka, his back turned, is showered with the foul smelling liquid.
He gets up, but Yoshida is ready and gives
him a huge push. Tanaka falls over backwards, smashing into a large
kerosene heater, in his rage he gets up, not
realizing at first why he feels so warm. He's a walking fireball!
Flames rip into his skin, yet he is coherent, "Get
the women and children out!" he shouts still standing. The stench
of kerosene and burning flesh fills the room.
The truck drivers do as told, getting the women and children to safety.
Tanaka's own wife and children stare
in horror before being ushered out by the truck drivers. No one tries
to save Tanaka; this burning ember of humanity
gone wrong, a symbol of how far some people will take a fight to win.
Tanaka had thought it would just
be a fist fight. "I'll finish it tonight!" he had confidently told his
wife. The
dispute had been going on for months. He and Yoshida just didn't
like each other. A joke to close to the mark
here, a barbed word there, and a push sometimes. Tanaka thought
the worst he would experience was a black eye
or maybe a few broken bones, if Yoshida got the better of him. It
didn't end there.
If it hadn't been so shocking and
tragic it would have been front page news, but in honour of the family's
wishes
and perhaps Japan's image as a safe country, it was put on the back
pages. Yoshida claims it was an accident.
Yoshida and Tanaka worked for a
deliver or (takubin) company. Their constant bickering had split the local
Tokyo branch into two camps. When one steps back for a moment, it
is amazing what people will do to each other--
how far they are willing to go. You never really know who you are
dealing with. Tanaka knew now, but of
course it was too late.
In the days following his brutal
death, Tanaka's wife remained catatonic. The children having no one willing
to
take care of them remain in an orphanage. Perhaps it tells you something
about the family that no one is willing
to care for the children. What went wrong? Why do we value each other
so little at times?
I'll tell you one thing. The next
time I get a dirty look from someone, I'll look the other way and remember
Tanaka. Tanaka's tragedy reminds me that my little ones are much
more important than winning any petty fight.
I want to see them grow up, and be there for them.
Kevin Burns
This is based on a true story, but the
names have been changed.
Send your Comments on this or other
articles: Japan Living
The Rate of Crime in Japan
2003
This article is mostly for people from other countries planning on
coming to Japan. The Yakuza control the major crime syndicates here, and
I will not go into all of their many and varied activities. As I`ve mentioned
them in other articles I will not talk about the bosozoku much either.
This report will discuss the crime you might hear about or actually experience
while here.
The overall crime rate is very low in Japan. But it depends on what
you are talking about. If you are talking about murder,
then your chances of being murdered in Japan are extremely low.
You have more chance of dying in a car accident than being murdered.
If you are talking about sexual assault, women are routinely sexual assaulted
on the crowded trains in the major cities here. Some of these perverts
or "chikans" as they are called here, have written books about how to do
it and have even become celebrities in the process. It sickens ones stomach
to watch a person talk about his strategy for assaulting a woman. It is
amazing that Japanese TV will interview someone like that and amazing that
people aren`t up in arms about it, but I digress.
There are internet clubs for chikans and several members have been
known to converge on one train car to increase their success. Recently
these "sickos" have been targetted more by the police and bystanders are
more likely to get involved and help victims. In the past, people have preferrred
to turn a blind eye to the crime. Some young women have demanded money
while on the train platform for an alleged
sexual assault--threatening to have the man arrested. Indeed some
of these young women are victims of sexual assault, but
others perhaps, are working a scam of their own, feeding on
hapless and embarrassed salarymen.
Japanese are not known for a willingness to help strangers in trouble,
but that may be changing. In the past, it was thought better to mind
ones own business, even if another was in trouble. I think, the idea behind
that was: if you don`t know the situation well, you shouldn`t get involved.
It may be due to a feudal society dominated by the Daimyo and Samurai,
rather recently in (historical terms) being thrust into the modernity of
Japan today. The scope of this article doesn`t allow me to go into it much,
but in the past, if you did the wrong thing, it was "off with your head."
That may still be affecting how people act today, including this hesitancy
to get involved in the conflicts of others, ie) women who are sexually victimized
on the trains.
Bicycles are often stolen here, so even for the most old,
ugly, Aunt Martha hand me down bike, you need a lock. Often the
bikes are stolen by drunks who don`t want to walk all the way home. The
penalties are not severe for bike stealing so
history often repeats itself.
Apartments and houses are often broken into here. Best to keep
credit cards and things with you if you are going out, and
keep your money in the bank! Don`t stash it at home. A woman I
know made the mistake of leaving her window open and a lot of cash in her
apartment. It was all taken. Some of the police are not "Columbos" and
don`t seem to have a high level of investigative skill. When officer Yoshida
found that the money stolen was in dollars and not yen, he proclaimed, "it
had to be a foreigner." Now Japanese robbers would never
want nice juicy American greenbacks now would they?
Yep, yep, yep, and the bartender did it with a Kirin Lager in the
kitchen.
There is a baffling copycat crime phenomenon that occurs here whenever
a major crime receives a lot of attention. After a widely publicized mass
curry poisoning crime occurred, we saw many similar style, mass poisonings
and the lacing of various foods and drinks with various deadly concoctions.
There are many scams that would probably be a crime in a Western country
but are not here. A somewhat recent one has been to charge exhorbitant
fees for "cleaning" your apartment after you leave. Some of my quiet and
cleanly neighbours were charged over $5,000 dollars
for "cleaning." A few of them paid, others hired a lawyer. I threatened
the landlord with a courtcase before it even got to that. I wanted to
be in their face before they got any ideas with my family.
Better to treat bullies like a bully is my idea. At about this time, they
stopped overcharging. My lawyer laughed when I suggested that this was
the crime of extortion or fraud. It wasn`t a crime in Japan he said, and
the landlord can only charge you for daily wear and tear--up to perhaps
50,000 Yen.
We have had our flowers dug up and stolen, flags have been
taken from our flag poles, my bicycle horn was taken and a
student or teacher robbed us of about $1,000 dollars during
a Christmas party at our home. I have had my bicycle stolen. I
hope she or he was embarrassed taking that piece of trash!
We have had our gasoline syphoned from our car which was parked
on a dark street in Odawara. My wife too, has been sexually assaulted
on the crowded trains, as have most Japanese women. It is a crime that
is still much too common and deserves some of the stiffer penalties handed
out for
it in other countries.
I have lived in this country for almost 14 years now, and I have
known few victims of crime. Most of the crimes are petty like the ones
mentioned above. The two I worry about the most are sexual assault as
I watch my daughter growing up, and road rage which seems to be more common
these days, with truckers driving while on drugs such as speed, and in
a high state of tension on the expressways. Just yesterday, our family
van sporting a "kids in the car" sticker, was nearly touched by a huge
truck not content with our rate of 20 kilometres over the posted speed limit.
If they come up
behind you try to get you out of their way, let them pass as the
rule seems to be: they own the road. And of course, the police are not
there when you need them! My wife was cut off by a huge truck that wanted
her off the road and nearly succeeded with my two sleeping childen in the
back of our van. Road rage is a danger and is increasing. if you are
calm
enough you can take down their licence and report them to their
company. Reporting them to the police won`t do much good though, as they
will only talk to the driver, if that. They will not press charges based
on witness reports. That is another reason why the bosozoku have so much
free reign here.
Around 10,000 Japanese are killed every year on the nations roads.
To put that in perspective, America participated in the Vietnam War from
1965-75 and lost over 50,000 men. The Japanese during that time lost over
100,000 on the streets and highways of "Nippon." The Americans lost less
during a very bloody war, than Japan did on her own streets. Be careful out
there, wear that seatbelt, drive defensively and remember that there is
road rage out there. Get out of their way and let them by. You don`t want
to be the next victim nor the next statistic!
Kevin Burns
|
Discuss Crime in Japan at Japan Living`s Forum
Have you had any run- ins with the Yakuza?
We haven`t thankfully, but there was a scam in our apartment
building by the management company. They charged 500,000 Yen for
"cleaning" when you moved out. Many people paid. Myself and some
others hired a lawyer. When the "cleaning man" came, I lost it as
I watched him writing down where the various marks were on our walls.
I told him that I knew what his company had been doing, that I wasn`t
going to pay up, and that they could contact my lawyer if they
wanted to push it. "I will fight you." I said.
The cleaner feigned or otherwise, said, "Oh I didn`t know that
company was doing that, of course you will only have to pay for wear
and tear."
He came back the next week to finish his check. I wanting to get
some air, went outside with two year old. As we were playing I
spied a stocky, strong looking man with a shaved or bald head,
staring at me from the road. He was wearing army fatigues. I thought
okay, here is the armour corps. I went inside and asked the man
checking if his "friend" wanted to come in and join him? He said,
oh no, he is just waiting for me, we are going to have lunch
together after this. They were probably the most mismatched lunch
dates I have ever seen. One in a suit, the other scary looking,
skin head in army fatigues.
Nothing came of all this. Ourselves and others stood up to this
rotten company, and they stopped trying to cheat people. You have to
stand up to bullies.
Kevin Burns
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