Jim Breen wrote:
> CL wrote:
> 
>> I've never flown out of KIX on an international flight but have gotten 
>> stuck having to do the KIX->HND flight several times.  There always 
>> seems to be at least one local cop who chases you around shouting 
>> "Passport!" and holding out his hand.  Give me Itami any day.
> 
> Wasn't it at KIX where Debito Arudo nearly got thrown in the slammer
> for refusing to produce his gaijin card? Maybe it was the same cop.

I think Debit got hit at HND.  Given his usual attitude, he made a
simple situation bad and then worse.  Or, as one person once said "Debit
could find a way to pay for free beer."  Even when asked, I have never
ended up having to show any ID.

But it wasn't always that way.  When I used to have to fly between Tokyo
and Hiroshima at least once a week (1983-84), there was one particular
cop, a guy who looked as though he was probably a year or two past the
retirement age but couldn't afford to take the early out,  who used to
run up and demand the passport of every gaijin he saw passing through
the carry-on luggage belt.  That was back when they wore those grey
uniforms that made them look like janitors with nightsticks.

Since carrying a passport was not required when you had your torokusho
book (which was the old internal passport book with your photo and
fingerprint) he would reserve a special level of harassment for everyone
without a passport from their home country, too, writing your name and
address in his little book and taking a copy of your meishi if you had
one.  He'd also open everything you were carrying and rummage around
inside but stop short of patting you down for weapons.  And, if you
reminded him that he'd done so just a few days earlier, he'd threaten
you with arrest.

It finally stopped when he did it to me in front of the Dentsu todori
and two assistants I was traveling with on one particular trip.  We were
on our way down to renew the client account and he was supposed to
schmooze the directors of the client at a very expensive dinner his
staff had taken several months to set up.  The man responded with what
usually worked -- this gaijin is with me; here is my business card that
tells you what I am and you're not; let's call my older brother at the
Justice Ministry and he will explain to you.  We ended up in the Haneda
Airport Police office and missed our flight, which was the last one of
the evening.  The airline was also a Dentsu client and offered to hold
the flight, but the Director told them to let it go.

We had to stay overnight at the old Haneda Tokyu on an night when they
had over half of the rooms filled with jukensei ... several hundred
ninth graders running up and down the halls trying to decide between
getting another ten points on their high school entrance exam or getting
laid.  The noise finally abated around two in the morning.  The next
morning, we were picked up by a Toyota Century none of us had ordered
and we were met at the front entrance of the old terminal by some
mid-level flunky of the Justice Ministry who took our tickets and
escorted our little group to the counter, where our tickets were
exchanged without question, and we were then taken directly to the
expensive seats at the front of the plane without going through any
luggage checks.

One of the assistants did one of those "don't let the Director know"
explanations in English that the hotel rooms, our meals, and the
upgrades were a gift from the Justice Ministry and that I was to not ask
what happened to the cop who had created the problem.  Oddly enough, the
several times I have been stopped since, simply responding in Japanese
has always led to a "Oh, you're a long-term resident?  Have a nice day."
kind of answer.