"Elbow" <tokyoelbow@totalise.co.uk> wrote in message

> I got stopped because apparently 'gaijins have been
> doing bad things around Kawaguchi Station' and their
> response was to stop every single gaijin  and ask for
> ID.

Do you read newspapers sometimes ? There was a sort of incident in Madrid
the other day. In a station, it seems. If you walk in the street with your
chistera in hand, it's not logical they supect you of being a Basque
separatist ?
Probably, to do well, they should ask everybody's ID and check all the bags.
That's what they are doing in Paris (probably thanks to that the bombs
didn't explode there too). You don't mean the Japanese cops should believe
the ETA BS version and pretend Japan is not targeted ?

> Is this legal?  Anyone else had similar shit happen to
> them?

You should try this in London. It's even better there, they will take you to
their place even if you have your ausweis...to check it's really you on the
photo and you are still alive.

> Would appreciate some comments or just plain old
> ranting  (insert horse).

The English would have kept you a couple of years in the cell with the Irish
suspected of being Irish. That'd be excessive, but I really think the
Japanese police was very kind with you.
They could legally make you pay a fine (a few man) and kept you in jail a
couple of days for breaking the law (at least once for not carrying your ID,
and maybe twice for not being cooperative with cops on duty). I'd have kept
you one night and I'd have given your dear wife advice about where she can
find a bengoshi. They are problably too busy these days.

I don't know who you think you are. Anybody can forget his/her ID, but the
least would be to apologize, given the situation.

CC