Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

If you can count on one thing from me, it's that I'm equally critical of everyone and everything.  I don't hold back and point out any fault (or positive aspect) if I see one.  Well, my friend recently pointed out the increase in police activity over at Akihabara.  I did a write up a while back on this subject, but now we're seeing it enforced.  These past few days during Golden Week, Akihabara had troves of police now marching like Nazi's with their little flags overtly compelling street performers to halt all activities.  The excuse given a while back on the subject matter was that the streets were meant for walking and riding bikes.  However, why the law enforcement?

I did reply to my friend that the cause was that the police were being sent by the yakuza, since the yakuza could not get an easy cut of the cost of a free street performance compared to an overpriced venue (remember pay-to-play?).  Sadly enough, the street performers never really hurt anyone and in fact helped probably bolstered the numbers to Akihabara and expanded the types of people who would go.

In contrast, my other friend (a female) told me that when she went to Akihabara for a job interview, she got stalked by two geeks.  This isn't the first time I've heard that.  One of the Densha Otoko special series shows even parodied how these geeks would go photograph a young pretty lady if they showed up in Akihabara.  Also, there were stories of geek kids getting beaten up by smaller groups for money, as the geeks kids were too cowardly and easy pickings for these groups.

When I look at both accounts on how justice is supposedly dealt out, I see completely misconstrued priorities on the subject.  Shouldn't the police be doing something to stop perverts and bullies rather than focusing on street performers who just want to use the area to get some recognition?  You never really see people getting hassled like that in Shibuya.  That's pretty messed up.

Then there was an article over on JapanToday that described the Japanese court system with regards to how one film group is kinda showing a documentary.  There was a fictionalized version of the court system as well as the criminal system.  Essentially, if you're caught there's very little you can do.  You lose all rights and your best bet is to grovel and apologize.  Even if you're innocent, the investigators and police are trained to force you to plea guilty no matter what.  It's a truly ruthless system, completely corrupted and quite frightening.

Now, I'm not saying other countries are perfect, even America.   But some things are so blatantly misguided, it leaves me to wonder how the people can tolerate such injustices?  For me, it's just not so fun here anymore.