(OT) In Japan, You May Get Arrested If You Have No Job, No Income, No Home and Wander About in Town During the Daytime

Meanwhile in Japan, for lack of anything worthwhile to do in that part of Japan (Kansai), Nara Prefectural Police arrested a man for "not working, even though he has an ability to work and he has no income, and loitering, without no fixed abode". According to the public servants at the prefectural police, that's against the Minor Offenses Act (Article 1 Item 4), the law in Japan to protect the social order.

The article linked above is from "Bengoshi (Attorney) dotcom", and you would think they would be outraged.

Ah but this is Japan. Their bottom line is:

浮浪行為がそれ自体反社会性を有し、犯罪行為と結びつきやすいから取り締まる、という点にあります。特に病気というわけでもないのに、昼間からお酒を飲んで、街中をふらふらしていたら、市民にとってはそれだけで脅威です。

[Comment by one of the member attorneys of bengoshi dotcom] Loitering in itself has an anti-social element, and the point [of the Minor Offenses Act] is to strictly control loitering because it tends to be associated with criminal acts. If one is not sick, but is drunk in the middle of the day and wandering around in town, it is threatening to the citizens.

確かに、例え職に就かずうろついている本人に悪気がなくとも、子供など見る人によってはそういう人を怖いと感じてしまう可能性があるので、治安維持の観点からの取り締まりということであれば致し方ないといえそうだ。

Even if there is no malicious intent on the person who wanders about without a job, it is possible that some people, including children, feel threatened. From the standpoint of maintaining the public order, therefore, it can be said that there was no choice [but to arrest the person].

Oh yes, it's for the kids. For the most part, the Japanese readers are highly approving of the police arresting this good-for-nothing man walking about during the daytime without a job and a home. What a caring society.

(I feel threatened when I see a package of green tea from Japan. Should I have the green tea arrested?)

Speaking of that part of Japan, Kansai, the boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City, who is now the deputy head of the party joined by Shintaro Ishihara for the national election, will start a test burn of the disaster debris from Iwate at the city's incineration plant designed by a world-famous anti-nuclear architect. The test burn will be on November 24.

A ship that carries 10 containers full of debris chips has departed Miyako Port in Iwate Prefecture on November 18, Iwate Nippo reports.

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