I've never been to Japan, but whenever I read these articles, I am reminded of the Japanese word 'Kaizen' which means to continuously improve your work. The way I understand it is to step outside of yourself while working and to see your output as to how it will be perceived over time and from an outsider's point of view and ask from that person's point of view what could be done better. I might be wrong, but to me, as a programmer, it is like seeing the code that I've written and see if it is simple to debug and simple to understand for people who will see it after me. A kind of stepping away from our creation.
Previously, there was another article on this [1]. And the corresponding HN thread [2]. And also a wonderful comment [3].
This might come off as somewhat pessimistic but I actually think Japan is one of the worst implementers of Kaizen anywhere. Japanese are famously conservative in how they work, with employees largely avoiding taking on any responsibility and spreading out tasks and checks. The end result being no-one really stands out, but also that no-one is ever really singularly "at fault" as every decision and check is daisy-chained.
It's horribly inefficient but exactly what a lot of people want in their jobs here. Kaizen is an example of executives and people who occupy the top of the chain mostly just pontificating and getting high off their own airs and mostly empty words with no internal policies or actions behind it imo. Most famous example in the Japan expat community of this would be somewhere like Uniqlo or Rakuten - horrible places to work with CEOs who like to roleplay as the next Steve Jobs.
I love this country, but these articles foreigners write without ever actually having worked in real Japanese companies with mostly Japanese natives always come off as a bit naive to me.
I've always felt that Japanese companies were very big on process because their management actually isn't very good otherwise. Promotions and status are much more based on seniority rather than merit.
As for the people at the top, they do seem to have more than their fair share of god complexes. I notice this a lot with their academics too. The average japanese person is so respectful and humble, it's like they overcompensate when they are in charge.
I'm under the impression that the "kaizen" philosophy is often about the product of one's work rather than the process.
Off the top of my head, there are two examples: the Fujifilm digital cameras (where you may have a totally different camera than the one you bought, thanks to firmware updates bringing in new features) and the Shimano bicycle parts (where improvements continuously come to top-shelf product lines, then trickle down to cheaper lines).
I wouldn't point any specific companies. It is highly subjective. I know people working in both - Rakuten and Uniqlo - who are happy with their jobs. Those are big companies and, the same as in the West, all is down to luck. If you happen to work with decent people you'll be fine.
As someone who lives in Japan I believe this is not a result of "Japanese people being more honest", but rather:
- Availability. There are police stations (kobans) and officers on the street everywhere, just a few steps away from wherever I may find something. Turning in a lost item has no friction. All it takes is a few extra steps. In the U.S. there is huge friction - I would need to go out of my way to go to a police station and turn in something.
- The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies. Officers and public staff (at train stations, etc) are service workers there to help you. I can ask them literally anything - directions, store recommendations, etc - and it's totally normal. Turning in a lost item to some random officer on the street is just a normal. In the U.S., I try my best to avoid all people in police uniform. They tend to be unfriendly, not helpful, and their job is to see if I am doing something illegal - not to help me. While this may not be true, that is my perception. I wouldn't even trust them to actually take care of a lost item I give to them. And the fact that they're carrying guns doesn't make them look any more friendly/helpful.
The definition of what "police" means in Japan vs. most Western countries is completely different.
That is what we in the US call "community policing" which is how it used to be. The cultural image of a policeman used to be the overweight donut eating totally approachable "dad" type figure, look at pretty much any hollywood movie or show from the 70s or 80s.
And since 9/11 the police have gotten a lot more militaristic. But police departments all over the country are TRYING to return to the idea of community policing. It'll take a while before we get there but that's absolutely where things need to be.
That's interesting. Thinking about it a bit more, my current image comes from the fact that I never had "positive" interactions with police or government workers in the U.S. The only interactions I ever had with the police were when I did something wrong like speeding, or carrying alcohol outside.
In Japan, kids constantly have small positive interactions with the police, government workers, or other people in uniform. They may greet or bow to you on the street, help with traffic, announce trains, etc. That contributes to the image that they are approachable and want to help you. If you grow up with that, you'll have a very different image of the police.
Militarization of police began in mid-70s, mostly as a consequence of ramping up the "war on drugs". It just took a while for the old stereotype to shatter.
Yes police where more community oriented in the 70's and 80's however that was something that only WASPS got. If you were an african-american, hispanic, gay etc the police where never your friend.
I have also heard people claim that in the long term this trend towards militaristic/adversarial policing is a long term fallout of the 1960's. Bright people who wanted to help others saw the police as authoritarian supporters of the status quo, so did not join. Which over the long term shifted the culture of police forces.
> The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies.
The US has a much more negative and adversarial view of govt in general, but in polls a large majority has a much more favorable view of cops versus other govt agencies. Certainly it's a terrible generalization to say americans view cops as enemies.
One import factor here is where specifically you live. Police in the US are local systems which totally differ based on local laws and culture. In a place like Los Angeles County, with its high crime problems, cops are a lot more jaded and defensive. Meanwhile in the small beach cities in LA, the cops are very helpful and mellow.
It's just as terrible a generalization to use polls that don't consider a great many of the people harassed and oppressed by police forces (immigrants, PoC, incarcerated, poor neighborhoods, homeless people). Yes, people feel both ways about cops, and that lack of uniformly friendly relationship across the populace is the whole point brought up by GP.
To their exact sentiment
> The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies
...the key phrase is "general view" and not "enemies". The general view in america is more varied, as a function of the diversity of people, experiences and opinions, for better or worse.
On the contrary a poll is about the best possible way to make generalizations. It uses random sampling to make estimates about a population. Otherwise the loudest get all the attention, certainly a big issue when it comes to cops lately.
I guess polls might miss homeless people, though there aren't enough to swing the numbers noticeably. I don't see why they'd hate cops especially.
I wonder how incarcerated people in Japan feel about cops. Have you seen ho they treat prisoners?
Homeless people would be more likely to have a negative view of cops because cops arrest them for loitering/sleeping in public/being a nuisance?
And polls might not include incarcerated people, yea. That will make a bigger difference in the US stats (0.65% of the population incarcerated, vs Japans 0.05%).
> One import factor here is where specifically you live. Police in the US are local systems which totally differ based on local laws and culture. In a place like Los Angeles County, with its high crime problems, cops are a lot more jaded and defensive. Meanwhile in the small beach cities in LA, the cops are very helpful and mellow.
This is not my understanding at all. I have a ticket that has all kinds of nonsense in a relatively low crime Overland Park, Kansas: reckless driving, bla bla bla. What I really had was a flat tire and I was stopped on the side of the road. Not that it matters because in any case the officers arrived on the scene more than ten minutes after I got the flat tire. I don't blame the officers: they can't admit it but I'm positive they have a quota to meet so they do this kind of nonsense.
I agree with you that it's easy to return things in Japan.
I also think there is a slight flip-side, at least in the city. There are so many people crammed together that there is a sense of always being watched, doubly so if you are a minority.
I remember picking up a 100yen coin (about 1USD) in a train station. Normally I would just put it in my pocket and think "lucky me" but I was keenly aware of the station worker watching me from the ticket office. I walked over to the worker and handed him the coin saying it was lost property.
I do sometimes wonder what happened to that 100yen.
Knowing how bureaucracy in Japan works, I bet it's still there buried in station documents altogether with pile of papers stating when it was found, who passed it to who and when, probably detailed description with meticulous description of all dents on the coin.
The Japanese police are not always the friendly helper though, especially when something not in their daily routine happens.
They're insanely rigid, almost always put arrested people in detention for maximum of 23 days even if they know the people are innocent, and they have a 99% conviction rate.
After living here for a couple of years, I feel that this is also closely linked to the highly homogeneous culture, where people are generally very friendly and kind to those who share the same origin, and can become unconsciously biased against people or things out of the "normal" world.
Like any other organizations and most Japanese. Anything out of the book is "impossible", the subset of rules that must be followed are strictly enforced and anything unplanned needs 12 people "hummm-ing" for hours to take an obvious common sense decision.
Japan has a 99% conviction rate and indefinite uncharged detention happens often. Despite that people treat police amicably, and there is a trusting relationship.
That's to me a sign that there is a fundamental cultural difference in Japanese attitude, in the US stats aren't anywhere as close to as severe, yet relations/trust is much worse. Goes to show how much of a productivity and effectiveness loss lack of trust is, regardless of how justified.
There are about two ways to get a 99% conviction rate: run total kangaroo courts that only fail to convict when the defendant credibly threatens big problems if they get convicted, or just don't take cases that aren't open-and-shut to court in the first place.
And while the kangaroo court thing is maybe a bit too true to be comfortable with, I'd wager Japan errs heavily on the side of not bringing potentially contentious cases to court.
Japan is a bit of both. Prosecutors are extremely reluctant to bring cases to court if a conviction isn't guaranteed (losing a case is extremely embarrassing), and for this reason judges almost always side with them because they assume a prosecutor wouldn't bring a case against someone who is not definitely guilty.
Basically in Japan they err on the side of letting criminals roam free if it's not an open-and-shut case in front of a judge, but it sucks for the (very few) who are wrongfully convicted, because nobody will believe them. Especially because you'll never get the government to admit they wrongfully convicted someone.
Factoring in plea bargaining the US and Japan have roughly the same conviction rate.
Factoring in people held in US because they can't make bail, also diminished some of the "held without trial" margin. But this is fundamentally a bigger problem in Japan, as it has now embarrassed the country on the world stage due to the Ghosn case.
A state that holds people just becauss it doesn't like them, rather than due to evidence of breaking its laws, relegates them to the same league as the North Koreas of the world. Profoundly embarrassing for a first world country and a major step backwards in reputation.
Sure? I mean evidently Ghosn was a high flight risk. And whether or not his conduct was illegal or not is still not decided. For once a powerful person was close to be held for trial over stuff that was sketchy enough to be prosecuted. In a democracy. And still some people are complaining about it. Compare the Ghosn case to other scandals, like the VW emissions scandal. In the VW case it was only lower ranking managers who got charged and convicted. While the higher ups are still free and German investigators, while doing their job from what I can tell, still managed to keep VWs godfather, Ferdinand Piech, out of the story.
But who won? Even assuming Ghosn committed a crime, they ended up looking like the crooks.
And one man succeeding in shady dealings hurts few. But the state succeeding in boundless detention puts everyone in peril. He may have some power, but there is no more powerful an entity than the state.
There's a basic rule of war: slow slow, fast fast. You slowly and quietly gather your forces and telegraph nothing, and when the moment comes, you unleash it all at once and unrelentingly. That's what they should've done. Not made a move until they had the evidence to put him away.
The fact they couldn't do crap for months on end just broadcasts to the world: "we don't actually have any evidence to convict him on".
Nothing's sacred in this world, not even habeas corpus, because no one can be arsed reading history -- it was never a matter of anyone forgetting it.
That's a system in which the prosecution doesn't go yo court without enough evidence. Which is a good thing, IMHO. Might also mean that some reasonable cases aren't taken to court for lack of confidence on the prosecution s side. Still, largely preferable to the opposite.
The system not pushing everything tends to benefit the powerful. The other system em also tends to hurt the weak. One evil is still better than two, if you ask me.
In some world states, the prosecution, having taken a case to court but seeing that it is likely to lose, often drops the case. This typically coincides with the practice of judges of dropping strong hints to one side or the other that they will rule against them, and thus it might be better to drop the case.
I think it also helps that most cops outside the US don't err on the side of shooting people dead. Which is a direct result of proper gun control, Japanese cops aren't continuously walking around in fear of their lives.
FWIW, in plenty European countries, police officers are also treated amicably (and asked for directions, etc, much like in Japan) but there's also no 99% conviction rate. I think Japanese cops are treated with trust despite the scary conviction rate, not because of it.
If I were a cop in the US, I'd also be an aggressive dick. I'd rather rough innocent people up a bit too often than get shot because I was too easy going. It must be one of the scariest jobs in the world.
>in the US stats aren't anywhere as close to as severe
Well, the US has the largest incarceration rate in the world (24% of the world's prison population for 5% of the world's population), the death penalty, and even death penalty for teenagers, plus horrible prison conditions, private prisons that are profit centers, widespread acceptance that prisoners must be "punished" (as opposed to reformed, etc), the medieval three strikes law, bail law. Plus cops routinely shooting people, and even SWAT-ization of police forces.
So I'd say it's justified that the "relations/trust" is much worse.
The Japanese conviction rate or detection could affect a much smaller amount of their population -- and it could be even because prosecutors only move on when they are close to 100% sure about a case.
I disagree. It's more due to the rigid drumming in of "these are the rules you must follow" from a young age, backed up by harsh social ostracism of those who don't follow these social rules.
Children in Japan are taught at a young age to turn in even small found items, like a single small denomination coin, to the police station.
This bakes into them the sense that "that's what you do with found items" and coupled with the fact the police will return it to them if no one collects it, bakes in a sense of trust of the police at an early age.
As someone with similar experience, I disagree completely. It lies deeply in Japanese culture and is thaught since early days. Proiximity to the police station has nothing to do with it.
If anything, they will leave things on the street if there is no koban near by. Every single kid knows that, if you see some unattended property, the safest option is to leave it be. If it's a commodity then you can return it and probably should. Everything else you don't touch (and by any circumstances you don't touch bicycles!)
I don't remember the thread, but there was a story here on HN about the guy who tried to take and return the bike to the police station. He was, to his own surprise, questioned hardly about why did he do that and what was he thinking. They wanted to put him in detention, too.
I do agree about police helpers, though. I am not living in Japan anymore and, boy, I am missing that.
> The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies
And you don't think that people who view the police as "enemies" tend to be less honest...
Come on, this is very far from the only example of the extremely high social capital in Japan compared to the West, especially the US. It's just absurd to pretend that it is mainly due to the number of police boxes.
What always stumped me is that there are virtually always lockers for umbrellas available (the exception being if they have appliances where you can wrap your umbrella into a plastic wrap before entering. That's mostly found in malls and department stores).
Given that the standard plastic issue umbrella is sold in any konbini [7/11 et al]) for 500yen combined with Japanese honesty that always surprised me.
What do you mean by "lockers for umbrellas"? Are you talking about public spaces or restaurants? Maybe I just haven't seen them, but I'm really not sure what you are referring to.
An umbrella may be 500 yen, but not getting wet when it's raining is priceless :) So, getting an umbrella stolen while you are in a store has a much higher cost than 500 yen.
It took me a while to figure it out too, but it's those little umbrella holders with locks on them that you can often see in the library or onsen. I've never once locked mine, but I live in the countryside :-) But I don't even lock my front door. I've had drunk neighbours come into my apartment in the middle of the night by accident. It's almost stereotypical. Sometimes I think living in the Japanese countryside is like living in a time machine...
Edit: Funny story. When I first moved to Japan, I lost 33 umbrellas in 3 years. I couldn't figure out where they were going. Then at the morning meeting at work they said, "We have this huge pile of umbrellas in the back room. Can people please claim them?" They were all mine... Apparently in the morning after the staff arrive, they would put them in the back room so that it wasn't a nuisance to visitors. Since I live in Shizuoka where it barely rains, by the time I was ready to go home it was usually sunny and forgot about my umbrella. I never ever realised that it was just getting moved. Of course, by then I was indoctrinated enough in Japanese society that I was way too embarrassed to claim my umbrellas!
Yes, I know that they're free. I was just wondering why such an ubiquitous thing like a usually very cheap umbrella needs to be locked away in the first place. In Japan from all places.
Of course, and if it's only a standard bucket, there's a very good chance that you walk away with the wrong umbrella. But are people really that attached to their specific personal umbrella, which is exactly the same as yours, that this matters?
To the other replier: They're very common in museums and comparable venues. Department stores usually have that appliance thing were your umbrella gets wrapped in a plastic baggie to avoid dripping. One wonders, alas, how sustainable that is.
The Japanese release all the energy saved up not committing other petty crimes by being notorious umbrella thieves. Tokyo is the umbrella crime theft capital of the world.
The lockers prevent the "Oh I thought it was mine", excuse, and also places popular with foreigners, who more commonly have actual umbrellas instead of the cheap plastic ones, are more likely to have the lockers I've found.
With many people using the same cheap plastic umbrella it is very difficult to tell which one is yours. I have had quite a few umbrellas "taken by mistake".
How much "taking by mistake" is a euphemism for "stealing", well, I'll let you be the judge.
My hack: attach a small key to your umbrella handle. Many people will think twice about taking a key.
I don't think they are common in Tokyo. I've seen them few times, maybe. In most cases people just put their umrellas in an umbrella stands in front of the stores, restaurants or combini. Since most of them look similar, people get confused about which one is theirs. I've heard that nothing gets stolen in Japan, except for bikes and umbrellas. Not sure about bicycle - still got mine, but indeed I've got my unmbrella misplaced once or twice.
This reminds me of a cute story here in Japan about someone finding a lost acorn in a mall and taking it to the lost and found, only to find the mother and child there already asking if someone had turned it in.
I live in South Africa, we have the exact opposite ! Count your blessings
-Here nothing gets returned but they will go out of your way to kill you for your cellphone.
-One of our past police-ministers had done away with specialised units (like child abusers etc)
-He (Police minster) was also found not guilty of committing fraud, yet the party involved was committed of fraud. "Shabir Shaik" (go figure usually it takes two...)
-Police routinely loose or just outright sell their own weapons.
-Police will also sell weapons that are being turned it (The S.A government really wants to disarm all the law abiding citizens)
-Police are routinely arrested for being part of the crime problem. From murders to drug trafficking
-Very few ppl trust the police here.
Where the police is less violent and less biased against underprivileged strata of society, the probability of people thinking of the police as an institution which may help with such issues is higher. In many (most?) countries, an encounter with the police is something that makes you worried you will likely be talked down to, potentially held up, and potentially even locked up for the night, beaten somehow, arrested, have stuff taken away from you, and in some countries perhaps even shot.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 112 ms ] threadPreviously, there was another article on this [1]. And the corresponding HN thread [2]. And also a wonderful comment [3].
[0] Kaizen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen
[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200114-why-japan-is-so-...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22055867
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061001
It's horribly inefficient but exactly what a lot of people want in their jobs here. Kaizen is an example of executives and people who occupy the top of the chain mostly just pontificating and getting high off their own airs and mostly empty words with no internal policies or actions behind it imo. Most famous example in the Japan expat community of this would be somewhere like Uniqlo or Rakuten - horrible places to work with CEOs who like to roleplay as the next Steve Jobs.
I love this country, but these articles foreigners write without ever actually having worked in real Japanese companies with mostly Japanese natives always come off as a bit naive to me.
With the caveat that I have also never worked in a Japanese factory floor, that might be the difference between white and blue-collar work in Japan.
As for the people at the top, they do seem to have more than their fair share of god complexes. I notice this a lot with their academics too. The average japanese person is so respectful and humble, it's like they overcompensate when they are in charge.
Off the top of my head, there are two examples: the Fujifilm digital cameras (where you may have a totally different camera than the one you bought, thanks to firmware updates bringing in new features) and the Shimano bicycle parts (where improvements continuously come to top-shelf product lines, then trickle down to cheaper lines).
- Availability. There are police stations (kobans) and officers on the street everywhere, just a few steps away from wherever I may find something. Turning in a lost item has no friction. All it takes is a few extra steps. In the U.S. there is huge friction - I would need to go out of my way to go to a police station and turn in something.
- The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies. Officers and public staff (at train stations, etc) are service workers there to help you. I can ask them literally anything - directions, store recommendations, etc - and it's totally normal. Turning in a lost item to some random officer on the street is just a normal. In the U.S., I try my best to avoid all people in police uniform. They tend to be unfriendly, not helpful, and their job is to see if I am doing something illegal - not to help me. While this may not be true, that is my perception. I wouldn't even trust them to actually take care of a lost item I give to them. And the fact that they're carrying guns doesn't make them look any more friendly/helpful.
The definition of what "police" means in Japan vs. most Western countries is completely different.
And since 9/11 the police have gotten a lot more militaristic. But police departments all over the country are TRYING to return to the idea of community policing. It'll take a while before we get there but that's absolutely where things need to be.
In Japan, kids constantly have small positive interactions with the police, government workers, or other people in uniform. They may greet or bow to you on the street, help with traffic, announce trains, etc. That contributes to the image that they are approachable and want to help you. If you grow up with that, you'll have a very different image of the police.
I have also heard people claim that in the long term this trend towards militaristic/adversarial policing is a long term fallout of the 1960's. Bright people who wanted to help others saw the police as authoritarian supporters of the status quo, so did not join. Which over the long term shifted the culture of police forces.
The US has a much more negative and adversarial view of govt in general, but in polls a large majority has a much more favorable view of cops versus other govt agencies. Certainly it's a terrible generalization to say americans view cops as enemies.
One import factor here is where specifically you live. Police in the US are local systems which totally differ based on local laws and culture. In a place like Los Angeles County, with its high crime problems, cops are a lot more jaded and defensive. Meanwhile in the small beach cities in LA, the cops are very helpful and mellow.
To their exact sentiment
> The general view of police and government as your "friendly helper" as opposed to enemies
...the key phrase is "general view" and not "enemies". The general view in america is more varied, as a function of the diversity of people, experiences and opinions, for better or worse.
I guess polls might miss homeless people, though there aren't enough to swing the numbers noticeably. I don't see why they'd hate cops especially.
I wonder how incarcerated people in Japan feel about cops. Have you seen ho they treat prisoners?
And polls might not include incarcerated people, yea. That will make a bigger difference in the US stats (0.65% of the population incarcerated, vs Japans 0.05%).
This is not my understanding at all. I have a ticket that has all kinds of nonsense in a relatively low crime Overland Park, Kansas: reckless driving, bla bla bla. What I really had was a flat tire and I was stopped on the side of the road. Not that it matters because in any case the officers arrived on the scene more than ten minutes after I got the flat tire. I don't blame the officers: they can't admit it but I'm positive they have a quota to meet so they do this kind of nonsense.
I also think there is a slight flip-side, at least in the city. There are so many people crammed together that there is a sense of always being watched, doubly so if you are a minority.
I remember picking up a 100yen coin (about 1USD) in a train station. Normally I would just put it in my pocket and think "lucky me" but I was keenly aware of the station worker watching me from the ticket office. I walked over to the worker and handed him the coin saying it was lost property.
I do sometimes wonder what happened to that 100yen.
They're insanely rigid, almost always put arrested people in detention for maximum of 23 days even if they know the people are innocent, and they have a 99% conviction rate.
After living here for a couple of years, I feel that this is also closely linked to the highly homogeneous culture, where people are generally very friendly and kind to those who share the same origin, and can become unconsciously biased against people or things out of the "normal" world.
Like any other organizations and most Japanese. Anything out of the book is "impossible", the subset of rules that must be followed are strictly enforced and anything unplanned needs 12 people "hummm-ing" for hours to take an obvious common sense decision.
That's to me a sign that there is a fundamental cultural difference in Japanese attitude, in the US stats aren't anywhere as close to as severe, yet relations/trust is much worse. Goes to show how much of a productivity and effectiveness loss lack of trust is, regardless of how justified.
And while the kangaroo court thing is maybe a bit too true to be comfortable with, I'd wager Japan errs heavily on the side of not bringing potentially contentious cases to court.
https://www.vox.com/world/2015/12/13/9989250/japan-crime-con...
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-09-fg-autop...
(although I would like to make clear -- in any large country, you will find examples of both)
Basically in Japan they err on the side of letting criminals roam free if it's not an open-and-shut case in front of a judge, but it sucks for the (very few) who are wrongfully convicted, because nobody will believe them. Especially because you'll never get the government to admit they wrongfully convicted someone.
Factoring in people held in US because they can't make bail, also diminished some of the "held without trial" margin. But this is fundamentally a bigger problem in Japan, as it has now embarrassed the country on the world stage due to the Ghosn case.
A state that holds people just becauss it doesn't like them, rather than due to evidence of breaking its laws, relegates them to the same league as the North Koreas of the world. Profoundly embarrassing for a first world country and a major step backwards in reputation.
And one man succeeding in shady dealings hurts few. But the state succeeding in boundless detention puts everyone in peril. He may have some power, but there is no more powerful an entity than the state.
There's a basic rule of war: slow slow, fast fast. You slowly and quietly gather your forces and telegraph nothing, and when the moment comes, you unleash it all at once and unrelentingly. That's what they should've done. Not made a move until they had the evidence to put him away.
The fact they couldn't do crap for months on end just broadcasts to the world: "we don't actually have any evidence to convict him on".
Nothing's sacred in this world, not even habeas corpus, because no one can be arsed reading history -- it was never a matter of anyone forgetting it.
https://youtu.be/OINAk2xl8Bc
The system not pushing everything tends to benefit the powerful. The other system em also tends to hurt the weak. One evil is still better than two, if you ask me.
In some world states, the prosecution, having taken a case to court but seeing that it is likely to lose, often drops the case. This typically coincides with the practice of judges of dropping strong hints to one side or the other that they will rule against them, and thus it might be better to drop the case.
FWIW, in plenty European countries, police officers are also treated amicably (and asked for directions, etc, much like in Japan) but there's also no 99% conviction rate. I think Japanese cops are treated with trust despite the scary conviction rate, not because of it.
If I were a cop in the US, I'd also be an aggressive dick. I'd rather rough innocent people up a bit too often than get shot because I was too easy going. It must be one of the scariest jobs in the world.
Well, the US has the largest incarceration rate in the world (24% of the world's prison population for 5% of the world's population), the death penalty, and even death penalty for teenagers, plus horrible prison conditions, private prisons that are profit centers, widespread acceptance that prisoners must be "punished" (as opposed to reformed, etc), the medieval three strikes law, bail law. Plus cops routinely shooting people, and even SWAT-ization of police forces.
So I'd say it's justified that the "relations/trust" is much worse.
The Japanese conviction rate or detection could affect a much smaller amount of their population -- and it could be even because prosecutors only move on when they are close to 100% sure about a case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINAk2xl8Bc
The premise is, yes 99% percent is a measured rate but also has no utility in a discussion if the other parts of the big picture is ignored.
Children in Japan are taught at a young age to turn in even small found items, like a single small denomination coin, to the police station.
This bakes into them the sense that "that's what you do with found items" and coupled with the fact the police will return it to them if no one collects it, bakes in a sense of trust of the police at an early age.
If anything, they will leave things on the street if there is no koban near by. Every single kid knows that, if you see some unattended property, the safest option is to leave it be. If it's a commodity then you can return it and probably should. Everything else you don't touch (and by any circumstances you don't touch bicycles!)
I don't remember the thread, but there was a story here on HN about the guy who tried to take and return the bike to the police station. He was, to his own surprise, questioned hardly about why did he do that and what was he thinking. They wanted to put him in detention, too.
I do agree about police helpers, though. I am not living in Japan anymore and, boy, I am missing that.
And you don't think that people who view the police as "enemies" tend to be less honest...
Come on, this is very far from the only example of the extremely high social capital in Japan compared to the West, especially the US. It's just absurd to pretend that it is mainly due to the number of police boxes.
Many years ago where [1] I was working as a designer of test equipment the head of the drafting department had a saying:
"If you make the right way the easy way people won't do things the wrong way."
He ran his department on those principles and got things done accurately and quickly.
It looks like the Japanese have the same idea.
[1] Philips Mullard semiconductor plant, Southampton, late 70s, early 80s. Such a long time ago I can no longer remember his name.
Given that the standard plastic issue umbrella is sold in any konbini [7/11 et al]) for 500yen combined with Japanese honesty that always surprised me.
Can anybody knowledgeable comment on this?
An umbrella may be 500 yen, but not getting wet when it's raining is priceless :) So, getting an umbrella stolen while you are in a store has a much higher cost than 500 yen.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2457/3970512928_4cff616efd_b....
Edit: Funny story. When I first moved to Japan, I lost 33 umbrellas in 3 years. I couldn't figure out where they were going. Then at the morning meeting at work they said, "We have this huge pile of umbrellas in the back room. Can people please claim them?" They were all mine... Apparently in the morning after the staff arrive, they would put them in the back room so that it wasn't a nuisance to visitors. Since I live in Shizuoka where it barely rains, by the time I was ready to go home it was usually sunny and forgot about my umbrella. I never ever realised that it was just getting moved. Of course, by then I was indoctrinated enough in Japanese society that I was way too embarrassed to claim my umbrellas!
Of course, and if it's only a standard bucket, there's a very good chance that you walk away with the wrong umbrella. But are people really that attached to their specific personal umbrella, which is exactly the same as yours, that this matters?
To the other replier: They're very common in museums and comparable venues. Department stores usually have that appliance thing were your umbrella gets wrapped in a plastic baggie to avoid dripping. One wonders, alas, how sustainable that is.
It's so you don't have to carry around a wet umbrella in the store.
And if you happen to get a different cheap umbrella when you leave than when you entered, it's not a big deal.
The lockers prevent the "Oh I thought it was mine", excuse, and also places popular with foreigners, who more commonly have actual umbrellas instead of the cheap plastic ones, are more likely to have the lockers I've found.
I'd watch that anime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTwPII-mxk
With many people using the same cheap plastic umbrella it is very difficult to tell which one is yours. I have had quite a few umbrellas "taken by mistake".
How much "taking by mistake" is a euphemism for "stealing", well, I'll let you be the judge.
My hack: attach a small key to your umbrella handle. Many people will think twice about taking a key.
https://twitter.com/kiyotoshi_y/status/1179243144363331585
-Here nothing gets returned but they will go out of your way to kill you for your cellphone.
-One of our past police-ministers had done away with specialised units (like child abusers etc)
-He (Police minster) was also found not guilty of committing fraud, yet the party involved was committed of fraud. "Shabir Shaik" (go figure usually it takes two...)
-Police routinely loose or just outright sell their own weapons.
-Police will also sell weapons that are being turned it (The S.A government really wants to disarm all the law abiding citizens)
-Police are routinely arrested for being part of the crime problem. From murders to drug trafficking -Very few ppl trust the police here.
Count your blessings !