Crime in Japan

Furikome Sagi The Superbly Executed Telephone Crime

"Furikome Sagi" is Japanese for the crime of impersonating someone on the phone in order to rob the person called, of money.

At their state of the art recording studio, the Kawaguchi Gumi branch of the yakuza (Japanese mafia), have a meeting and talk about how they will pull off this latest furikome sagi crime. Toshino kicks back in his chair. Piece of cake he thinks. He`s been doing this kind of crime for five years now. He`s a veteran. He can`t count how much money he has earned for his yakuza branch, indeed his boss is very proud of him.

It was Toshino who broached the topic with the boss of getting high tech recording equipment. "It will pay for itself in the long run," he pleaded. "We will make the money back with two calls!" "Boss the initial impression is paramount when making the call to the parents. Those sounds, that miserable sobbing, that is what gets us 90% to the bank. Have I ever let you down before?"

The equipment was purchased and Toshino`s monthly proceeds had increased 50%. A new sports car from the boss followed. Crime does pay Toshino decided.

The wheels were set in motion. Aoki, one of Toshino`s colleagues repeatedly calls Hiroyuki Yoshida. "Moshi, moshi."(Hello) "Do you wanna suck my cock!!?" Aoki screams into the receiver. After the fifth call to *Hiroyuki, Hiroyuki turns off his cell phone.

Aoki calls every few minutes just to be sure that Hiroyuki Yoshida`s cell phone stays off. They can`t have him answering his phone. It will destroy the operation; and the boss doesn`t tolerate many failures.

Yoshida is needed to unwittingly play his part in the drama the Kawaguchi Gumi are enacting. Most people switch off their phones after about five calls the yakuza have discovered. Things are working perfectly. Almost as perfectly as Toshino`s brand new cherry red Fairlady Z.

It`s 4 PM. Tonegawa picks up the phone and dials Hiroyuki`s 45 year old mother. It`s Friday, a workday for both Hiroyuki and his father. So they are out. Only the mother is home. The Yakuza like it better when only one parent is home to receive the call. They can`t think as clearly on their own. There is no one to confer with. Like an isolated wildebeest, the lions will make their kill.

These Yakuza know that Hiroyuki`s mother is always home at 4PM on Fridays. They`ve been watching her. Their eyes for the past month has been what most in the neighbourhood have assumed was a pizza delivery boy, but who actually is a "chimpira" or low level yakuza. Atsuko comes home after tea ceremony at about 3:30PM. Most people are as predictable as Atsuko Yoshida.

The phone rings. Mrs. Yoshida answers it. She can hear sirens in the background, crying, traffic noise, and was that a scream? It sounds like there has been an accident!

"Am I speaking to Mrs. Yoshida?" asks Tonegawa very officially.

"Yes."

"Your son has been in a terrible accident."

"Is he okay?"

"Yes he is, it is the gentleman he hit who isn`t. He`s dead. A father of three. I don`t know what we are going to tell his wife. What a tragedy."

"Oh my, that`s terrible."

"Yes it is. Your son was driving recklessly. I`m afraid we are going to have to arrest him on the spot. I`m very sorry to have to tell you this, but Hiroyuki must go to traffic prison immediately."

"Why?"

"Well Mrs. Yoshida because of the magnitude of what he has done. I`m happy to have caught you at home, Hiroyuki said you would be back from tea ceremony by now."

"I`d like to speak with my son."

"I can put him on if you`d like?"

"No that`s okay, I`ll call his cell phone number."

"Okay I`ll call you back in a few minutes,"

Tonegawa says. Atsuko Yoshida in a gut wrenching panic calls her only son, but his cell phone is still turned off. Tonegawa calls back.

"Mrs. Yoshida, did you talk with your son?"

"No I couldn`t get through. His cell phone appears to be turned off or something. Is he there? Can I speak to him please?"

"Yes of course." (Aoki one of the best "actors" in the Kawaguchi Gumi comes on the phone) Wailing, he can`t even speak he is so upset. Mrs. Yoshida tries to comfort who she thinks is her son but he continues to cry. Tonegawa comes back on the phone.

"As you can hear Mrs. Yoshida, he is extremely upset. I`m sure you can understand."

"Doesn`t he at least get a trial, he is only 23."

"No he doesn`t in this case. A man is dead, a father of three. Hiroyuki has admitted that he was speeding, it really is cut and dry Mrs. Yoshida. There is one thing though. Governor Ishihara in a special motion last month, granted leniency in cases such as your son`s."

"What is that exactly?"

"Well you can get a waiver by making a payment of 2 million yen, but it has to be agreed to while your son is still at the crime scene. This will get Hiroyuki off on probation, but he will lose his licence for one year. In order to do this, and get the paperwork processed, we would have to act fast. Oh look at the time, it`s 4:05, the office stops processing paperwork at 4:15. "

Yes of course. What should I do?"

"You must go to the bank now, and transfer the money to account....."

Mrs. Yoshida did as she was told. She sent the money by express. She was very surprised when Hiroyuki came home from work at the usual time; and complained as soon as he had gotten in the door, about some jerk calling him at work and screaming very rude things into the phone.

"I shut if off after the fifth call."

Atsuko Yoshida started to cry.

Afterword: This story was based on a lecture given by the Matsuda Police of Kanagawa Prefecture. In the lecture the police detective attempted to describe how intelligent people can be duped by a crime like this. It happens all the time he stated and the criminals are very professional. By knowing how it is done, he felt that perhaps we could avoid being victimized. My wife attended the lecture then told me all about it.

*First names are rarely used in Japan. To make this story more understandable, the name of Hiroyuki was used. In an actual furikome sagi call probably "Uchi no musuko" or some phrase like that would be used. Uchi no musuko means literally "your home`s son," or "the son of your house." In plain English: "your son."

by Kevin Burns

Japanese Police

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.

by Chris Cutts

The Tribes of Midnight

Hiroyuki Sakamoto talks with Suzukisan: "You should come out with us on Friday nightSakamotosan, we have a lot of fun! We cruise around on our 'bikes' (motorcycles), drinkbeer 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 nightstudying 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 hassling 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 Japanesegirlfriend 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 angersthe California native, so it gives him satisfaction to scold this repulsive bosozoku. They wouldn't dareattack 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 peoplelisten 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 baseballbatted 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 hebegged, "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 theyare 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 hisworth. 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 upand 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'tbring 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 schoolEnglish 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 asmysteriously 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 signeda petition in support of the hapless policeman saying they were proud of what he had done, trying to end theassault 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 jobin 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 catchingcriminals, the police will not be punished if a criminal is injured fleeing a crime. If the rules prevent the police fromacting, why aren't the rules changed giving the police more power? Surely the people want their sleep to bemore restful and their neighbourhoods safer? Why don't people get involved? His long suffering wife listensto 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 thestreet in his pajamas, he would look comical if the situation weren't so serious. "Pipe down!" he yells tothe bike gang assaulting his and the whole neighbourhood's ears for blocks around. The bikers circle andsurround 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 Japaneselaw, you will not be severely punished for killing someone when you are 17--some time spent at a reform school perhapsis 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 hedecides, 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, marktheir territory, and speed off into the dawn.

Kevin Burns

"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

"...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