Lockpicks in Japan

[Zachary Rubin]

Hey all,

Before I end up on National Geographic's "Locked Up Abroad", does anyone know the legality of lockpicks in Japan?

thanks in advance,
Zachary

[Benjamin Davis]

I believe they are illegal (http://www.lockwiki.com/index.php/Legal_issues).

That being said, I don't know at what occasion you would be figured out and have them taken.  But if you want to be safe from that eventuality, leave them at home.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?  I remember hearing at least one of you is an accomplished lockpick.

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[MRE^2]

Karamoon is the resident expert on physical security. He would know.

However, just an observation:

I have met foreigners who have spent all of 6 months in country and
have had multiple police stops conducted on them... "suspicious
bicycle", "public disorderly", and "Fits a description" have all been
used for apparently random questioning.
Meanwhile I have been here 5 years and have never been bothered by a
police officer, and find them generally quite helpful when asking for
directions, even bombed off my ass. They were quite helpful when my
apartment was broken into.

So, really it comes down to what kind of person you are, what
situations you find yourself in, and how much of an ass you can be to
them.
Plain and simple truth is, if you are ever caught with illegal
materials, you likely WILL be detained. I know a guy who was detained
for having a screwdriver in the glove-box. And another who was
detained for not having his passport, after reporting that his wallet
(with gaijin registration card inside) was stolen.

Is your curiosity worth it? (how long do you intend on staying in the
country?)
If so, are you the sort of person that stays out of trouble?

Not to be a downer.. but it sort of touches on some past points, in
which I never fully voiced my opinion:
In the past, some visitors mentioned the idea of social disruptive
hacking.
"No, I dont think we should do anything like that." "Ohh whats the
problem, its not illegal really.. "
But many of us intend to stay a while, and while Japan is incredibly
tolerant, all things considered, we'd rather not participate in
anything that threatens our status here, nor casts a shadow on
foreigners in general (Its why the Yamanote Holloween parties really
PISS ME OFF.)


I'm not saying this is for you Zachary, or that possessing lock picks
is somehow a terrible thing..
Just my commentary wandering into the realm of unnecessary, but
hopefully thought provoking.

[Taylan Ayken]

An addition to that:

I got stopped a few months ago while I was moving my bike (not yet registered) and during questioning, one of the officers asked if they can check out my bag. I thought I didn't have anything that can get me into trouble but they freaked out when I pulled out my tire pump (thought it was a baton or sth). When I took out my Leatherman toolkit, all they saw was the knife and I was taken to a police station for questioning, held there for about 3.5 hours until a friend from embassy vouched for me, if it wasn't for him, I'd probably be held in custody until they found a translator. 2 weeks later or so, I was there for giving out an official statement (which had questions from "Did you ever get arrested in your own country?" (relevant) to "What is your research topic?" (WTF?!)) for another 3 hours. Last time I checked the toolkit's knife was legal (last year we were allowed to carry knives that have blades up to 10cm) but there was a change in the law (now it is 6cm max, and the one I had was 8.2 cm).

The moral of the story is that you might be stopped for anything (somehow officers want to chat with me, I guess it's the beard, or the hair, or the charming smile). You can try to be helpful and show them your stuff and they can find something that can incriminate you or you may choose not to and held in custody for up to 10 days without a court order (some examples http://www.letsjapan.org/category/japan/police ). So my advice: don't carry anything that might be illegal. Even if you know good Japanese, it is not easy to understand what they are saying (my friend told me that they were not speaking Nihon-go, they were speaking Keisatsu-go). Spare yourself the experience, it is not worth it.

---

From: MRE^2 <epre...@gmail.com>
To: TokyoHackerSpace <tokyohac...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 12:58 AM
Subject: [THS:12569] Re: Lockpicks in Japan

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[Zachary Rubin]

Thanks for all the responses!  

I do intend to stay here for a long time, and would not find it worthwhile to put that at stake over things that are more or less trivial. 

@MRE^2 I totally agree with you, some of the things I see foreigners do here makes me real embarrassed to be a roundeye...  I have not heard of "social disruptive hacking" but by the sound of it , it does not seem like something at all pleasant to do to a society in which you are a guest. 

On my second day in Japan (about 18 months ago) I was was walking alone at 
night and the police stopped me and asked to search my bag.  Back in the US 
i would have thrown the 4th amendment in their face, but afaik here people 
(especially foreigners) do not have rights like that. Luckily the worst they 
found was coffee stirring sticks, and i was released after about 5 minutes. 
In the following 6 months I spent here, was never asked to be searched 
again. 

I didn't know that about blades either , guess I'll have to measure the one 
on my gerber... 
that's pretty ridiculous though. What about a big pair of sizors? or a 
kitchen knife?  I've definitely bought exacto blades bigger than that here. 
Must be the "carrying it around with you" part that makes it illegal? 

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[Torsten Wagner]

Taylan, how often did I tell you not to wear your WoW-warrior dress
outside !! However, I wonder they were curious about the multi-tool but
completely overlooked your two-hand battle ax :)

I never had any bad experience. However, I noticed that Japanese are
still rather much worry about certain social rankings.
For some (not very clear reasons to me) my alien registration card
indicates me as professor (which I am not). As soon as custom control or
police sees my alien registration card they switch from already rather
friendly to uber-friendly. Insist to call me sensei and I never had any
trouble like luggage check, etc.
Thus, one advice might be if you can get yourself some business cards
from your job/university it might make a good impression to them if you
hand your meishi to them. ;)

Totti

CC. However, I think there is a difference between Tokio area and other
places in Japan. Guess police in Tokio might be more used to
inappropriate behaving gaijins (tourists, visitors, students, etc.) then
e.g., in Sendai (we are all very nice here ;) ).

[Taylan Ayken]

@ Totti: Dude, I was biking! No way I can bike with my mail armor (Me being a Tauren Shaman allows me that)! Might me my Elemental.. Hmmm, I guess I shouldn't have summoned that thing to help me pedal uphill.

After I told them that I was a student at Tokyo Tech and studying with Monbukagakusho, all of them were really helpful, but the damage was done, they already called a vehicle to take me to the station so they had to follow the rules. If they learned that I was here with government scholarship, they might have let me go. Well, speculating won't help getting my toolkit back I guess.

@ Zachary: That was my second (or third) ID check. Later, with the help of my translator, I found that if you have to carry cooking knives, or such, you should wrap them to a towel and explain why you are carrying them (like having a BBQ at a friends dorm is a good answer). Although it was in it's carrying pouch and deep inside my bag, that didn't stop them from confiscating my toolkit. The thing is it shouldn't pose a threat (according to them) and you should have a probable cause. If you just bought a kitchen knife and taking that home, it is not a problem as it is most probably inside its package.

---

From: Torsten Wagner <torsten...@gmail.com>
To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Taylan Ayken <taylan...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: [THS:12576] Re: Lockpicks in Japan