Japanese Cops
Some travel tips if you’re visiting Japan.
That guys experience sound like every other foreigner experience with cops in Asia. At least, amongst the other foreigners I knew while over there.
One thing the long timers often tell the FOBs (fresh off the boats) is never, ever, ever let on you speak the local lingo if a cop gets in your face, because you’re just opening yourself to all sorts of abuse. If you feign ignorance, they will inevitably get exasperated and move on… So, in my first few years in Taiwan, I ended up getting pulled over by a pair of traffic cops for some minor infraction. As they were trying to figure out what to do with me, and I was pretending not to speak Chinese, one of the cops did get exasperated. He said to his buddy, “Fuck it, let’s just arrest the ‘big nose’ and let the consulate deal with him.” At that point, I decided it would be in my best interest to speak Chinese and show him my local driver’s license. If there’s one thing the U.S. consulate really doesn’t like doing, it’s paying for a 1-way ticket for one of its citizens who is getting deported…
After that, I stopped trying to abuse my status as a foreigner and just spoke Chinese whenever I dealt with a cop for whatever reason. More often than not, they were really cool. See, they’re not too stupid and know full well that a guy pretending not to speak the lingo is just that, pretending.
Posted by on 04/05 at 01:01 PM
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