Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo
Well, my area is near Nihombashi ... They just want to cause trouble to foreigners so that they can write how obnoxious and petty the Japanese police is (do you see another purpose ?).
Hmmm, could very well be exactly as you say. My guess, however, would be that in the post-9/11 Tokyo, the police are being really stupid in their security methods. You know how they recently "protected" the Keio line by removing garbage receptacles? As if a terrorist would leave a bomb there and not on an overhead rack on the train itself, where a bomb could easily be left unnoticed. That's a prime example of "we've want to look like we're doing something so let's do something really annoying and stupid."

Maybe the Nihombashi police--being so close to downtown, the financial district (which is after all a terrorist target)--are thinking, "we've got to respond to this terrorist thing, so let's just stop any foreigner at random." And they probably feel that they're "doing their job."

Take the Japanese motorcycle police. They set up ticket traps in the same place every time, and it is never in a place where safety is at stake--the prime determinant in setting up a ticket trap is "how can we ticket the most number of people with the least amount of effort?" Speed traps are set up on lonely, deserted straightaway roads with no pedestrians or intersections and the speed limit is ridiculously low. Never any accidents, but like shooting fish in a barrel for catching "speeders." Or the infamous intersection/underpass traps, aimed primarily at bikers who commit the unholy crime of crossing a yellow line when there is no traffic around, or 49cc scooters making a right turn at an intersection with more than two lanes. Stuff like that. I see incredibly dangerous streets with pedestrians, blind corners and narrow ways that are virtual death traps, but the police never police those--I know one such street in Chofu which is never patrolled despite being just a block away from police stations!

I have respect for many institutions in Japan, but the police are not one of them. They know how to put on a show and harass innocent people, but they would be hopelessly lost and vastly undertrained if they were ever presented with a real challenge.