Hurrah! It's Friday! I'm going snowboarding with Sam in Ono tonight - can't wait! But first I have to dig my car out... BOO!!!
Anyway, I found this story on Big Daikon this morning, and I thought it was really interesting. It's about a JET who was caught "shoplifting", and what happened to her. She maintains her innocence, but she was forced to plead guilty and spend some time in jail anyway, and on top of that she was fired by the Board of Education. Go to: http://www.bigdaikon.com/mystory-20030310.shtml.
So remember kids, always use a shopping trolley.
2 comments:
There are clearly many problems with the Japanese judicial process, many many problems, but...
1) It seems so obvious. If you put merchandise in a bag that you brought into a store, assumptions will be made. It doesnt matter what country you live in.
2) After 4 months in this country she must've witnessed before the compartmentalization of superstores. My first weekend in Japan I was yelled at a couple times to not bring merchandise to other floors. Come on!
Think, McFly. Think!
3) Japan is really paranoid about shoplifting. They insist on putting every purchase in a bag at the register, and they tape it shut on the spot. If its a pack of ciggies or a bottle of water, it doesnt matter. They will tape it shut. This isn't for your convenience, its for security. She must have realized that she was a white girl living in a homogenous, xenophobic Asian culture. I'm sure this probably dawned on her at some point. You do suspicious things, paranoid people will suspect you.
Rant aside, the J-pigs are no joke. Do not break any laws, for the love of God!
Hope you have a prison-free weekend!
ben
Good point, well made. Speaking of taping bags shut, I was offered a carrier bag when I bought a pack of cigarettes the other day. It seems strange to me that Japanese people are so conscious about recycling, with different rubbish collection days for every conceiveable type of rubbish, yet shop assistants will gladly hand out carrier bags willy-nilly.
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