‘Foreigners likely to be criminals’: Cop reveals racial profiling tactics in Japan

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - An unnamed policeman in Japan has revealed that there was a “strong assumption” in the force that foreigners were “likely to be criminals.”

"And I think that when police think of a 'foreigner,' they're not picturing someone (of European descent), but a person with darker skin, with Black or Southeast Asian roots and so on. I thought that way. Officers assume (light-skinned people) are tourists or have a Japanese partner. But with people with dark skin, they tend to assume they're visa overstayers,” the cop narrated in a detailed interview with the daily Mainichi.

The details come out as Japanese police conducted “persistent and systematic” racial profiling of foreigners as cops had also designated a 'cracking down on foreigners' month.

They were questioned, their IDs, birthdays, country of origin checked and searched for drugs, knives or anything else illegal and the details were recorded on forms issued by police officers.​​​​​​​

Details were later deposited to police, criminal investigation and public security divisions, said the cop.

In January, the Japanese government, police, and two provincial administrations were accused of racial profiling.

The plaintiffs, three foreign-born residents of the island country, have named the Japanese state, as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan and Aichi provincial governments, in a suit filed in a Tokyo district court.

The case demands that the government clarify that it was "illegal for police officers to stop and question a person because of their race or nationality."

According to the unnamed police officer, one provincial police chief's office had asked force to "direct officers to conduct an arrest training exercise simulating a Brazilian person attacking you with a crowbar."

This, the cop added, was done with the justification that "there are many Brazilians in this area."