American man arrested for staying at Iwakuni city hall for over 10 hours

Idiot of the week award.

The usual American angry with all world

Deport this d head

Deport this d head

Probably broke and did this for a free flight home. Don't city halls close at like 5 or 6? Too much patience to take him into custody many hours after closing.

There's a USA military base there, right? My guess is he wandered off the base (drunkenly?) and ended up at city hall. The nearest USA consulate is in Fukuoka methinks.

Why would you go to a Japanese city office when applying for an American passport?

They have a USAF base in Iwakuni but the American claims he works in “sales”, so at least he’s not military. I’d like to know what kind of sales job he’s in and what his status of residence is.

A lunatic a possible menace and danger to the public perhaps. The needs to go into the loony bin to straighten himself out and stop disrupting the decent members of society.

" that the man got angry after being denied a passport application document, even though he was told that passport procedures are handled by the U.S. consulate or embassy.""

Something is not right here, terrible communication, possibly gross misunderstanding, or both, I believe this may has to do with his visa and not his passport, city office do record passport numbers and keep it on record it is possible that his passport may have expired already and they could not help him with his visa or insurance card or my number until he renews it.

Who TF applies for a US Passport at a Japanese city hall? LOL! He must have been told "we don't issue them here" in the first 10 minutes. Way to get an arrest record.

i never had to have any document or visa information from japan to renew a passport. visa is handled by immigration, not the city office.

iwakuni is a joint use marine corps air station, not air force, used by carrier air wing 5 of the navy and the japanese maritime self defense force. the air force presence is communications.

Maybe he was going home and wanted to fix all the city tax and pension return documents Before you leave Japan.

every foreigner knows Japan doesn’t deal with OUR passports. Somethings not right in the story.

Everyone seems to be assuming it was about an American passport. Japanese passports, depending upon the location and municipality, are issued by some/many municipal offices.

This article is missing a hell of a lot of information, most important being who the passport was for in the first place.

Yubaru makes an excellent point. Whose passport are we reading about.

Marco, not so scholarly

There are lots of reasons for temporary loss of sanity and if so, I just hope he doesn't end up strapped to a bed for the next six months.

(Could just be nasty man but he probably had some reasons).

One of those days when he'd have been better off just staying in bed. It'll get sorted.

YubaruToday  08:48 pm JST

Everyone seems to be assuming it was about an American passport. Japanese passports, depending upon the location and municipality, are issued by some/many municipal offices.

The article states "arrested a 41-year-old American man"

Obviously this was about a US Passport, not a Japanese Passport. That's assuming this article is correct.

Of course the man could be totally nuts and asked for an Australian Passport.

BTW, the Iwakuni City Hall does not even issue Japanese Passports. You have to go to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Passport Office.

He out-waited the service overtime staff. Rather impressive innit?!

Obviously some mental health issues going on here.

America doesn't have the only people with mental challenges.

If he's in the military, he may not have a passport and has traveled using military orders and his military ID card.

We don't know what type of passport he was requesting or thought he might get. Lots of people don't understand anything about passports or gotten a passport confused with a VISA.

In the USA, lots of Post Offices have passport services, meaning they have the forms to be completed, documents to include as proof and the USPS will mail off the official request for standard/expedited processing to the regional passport office. There are also passport companies that will have a person in the city of a regional passport office who will hand-walk your paperwork through. I've had to use one of these people to save 2 days of processing for a work trip. Much easier (and cheaper) to just use expedited processing 30 days before any travel. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/processing-times.html/

Of course, if you have lost your passport when out of the US, then going to the US embassy is the only way to get it replaced and they have completely different rules, I would expect. Never lost a passport myself.

Ossan san above...what would be "totally nuts " about asking for an Australian passport ?

This comment borders on a "beer libel " mate....the Aussie equivalent of .... you know what..."quiet voice "...I dont want to be banned again today

Why is this even news? Just because he was an American. I get that the media wants to take focus over how poorly the government is handling everything right not, but damn.

If this were a Canadian, he would spend 10 hours in a manga cafe trying to read all 7 series

Local authorities in Japan handle various citizen-related matters, they do not issue Japanese passports; applications are submitted to the Passport Offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The article states "arrested a 41-year-old American man"

So? Like it's not unheard of for an "American" to get passports for their Japanese kids!

Of course the man could be totally nuts and asked for an Australian Passport.

He'd be totally nuts to ask for an American one as well!

BTW, the Iwakuni City Hall does not even issue Japanese Passports. You have to go to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Passport Office.

Umm, me thinks you should check yourself here.

岩国市役所 市民生活部 市民課 パスポートコーナー

https://www.city.iwakuni.lg.jp/soshiki/20/2422.html

Not a surprise..

Deport..

Lots of information missing. Perhaps he had both US & Japanese passports and they wouldn’t issue him another Japanese passport. Just a guess.

Too much missing from this article.

It is just an American bashing empty news article. Something you would expect to read in Russia or China.

Everybody is bashing this guy, but the article doesn't say what kind of document the man was looking for and only implies that it's something about an American passport. What if the document is something for his dual-citizen child (proof of birth in Japan, perhaps, or proof of residence in Iwakuni) that he needs to submit to the US embassy to get his child's passport? Something that no single-nationality Japanese person would need, so the City Hall staff had no idea how to handle?

Dumb American doesn’t know how to apply for a passport and thinks he is above the rule of law simply because: he’s American.

Lots of information missing. Perhaps he had both US & Japanese passports and they wouldn’t issue him another Japanese passport. Just a guess. 

You guessed wrong. Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship to people over 18, so not possible that he holds both Japan and US passports.

Just another angry American that doesn’t know how to follow procedure, likely due to the poor American education system.

@thontaddeo

Your point is irrelevant. There is never an excuse to make a scene like this because you don’t have your documents in order. Don’t try and justify crazy people’s behavior.

You guessed wrong. Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship to people over 18, so not possible that he holds both Japan and US passports.

What you think you know, and reality are different. There are PLENTY of Japanese citizens who hold passports and citizenships in other countries.

What the "law" states, and it's not 18, they have to "choose" by 22 years of age.

Just another angry American that doesn’t know how to follow procedure, likely due to the poor American education system.

Just another person who assumes things when they dont have the whole story.

Lots of information missing. Perhaps he had both US & Japanese passports and they wouldn’t issue him another Japanese passport. Just a guess. 

Look it up, you’re DEAD wrong.

Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship, to hold 2 passports. Yes, people do, but it’s technically illegal. Get your facts straight before embarrassing yourself.

News articles are so much better when the reporting answer the basics of who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Who was the man requesting a passport application document for? Himself? A spouse or child? Does the city office normally distribute such documents for citizens?

The city office was not accepting a completed application for a Japanese passport. The man was merely requesting a blank form. Why was it a problem to give out a blank application form? The form is also readily available online, so it’s not some special thing where you have to show your koseki in order to receive the form.

If the office normally distributes the form, why couldn’t they have just given the man the form, while politely explaining that it’s only for a Japanese passport, not for a visa nor for an American passport? Why couldn’t they have directed him to the form online?

Why did city office staff choose to wait 5 or 6 hours after closing time to have the man removed?

Is the man being charged with any offense? If so, what? Was he released by police, or is he still held in custody?

The man was stubborn and boorish. Depending on circumstances, he may have also been completely correct in his request, while bureaucrats were denying him for idiotic, ignorant reasons. Without detailed reporting, we will never know.

A 41 year old with a mental capacity of an 8 year old 'little girl brain" whose parents didn't teach him "No is no"!

"I'll call my mom if you don't give me damn passport!! I want my passport!"

"American man arrested for staying at Iwakuni city hall for over 10 hours.'

That's a very determined man! Or there is more to this story?

Local authorities in Japan handle various citizen-related matters, they do not issue Japanese passports; applications are submitted to the Passport Offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

Wrong.

Applications and issuance, of Japanese passports, have been handled by both municipal offices and passport centers within prefectures, for nearly 2 decades now.

People apply through their local office, and receive it there as well. Each prefecture has different locations for processing. In this article, Iwakuni, processes passport applications through the city office.

I posted a link.

Local authorities in Japan handle various citizen-related matters, they do not issue Japanese passports; applications are submitted to the Passport Offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

MOFA is responsible for issuance and renewal of Japanese passports for citizens who reside overseas, same as countless other embassy's or consulates of other countries.

You guessed wrong. Japan doesn’t allow dual citizenship to people over 18, so not possible that he holds both Japan and US passports.

It's a "don't ask, don't tell" situation. My two children, both in their late 20s, hold dual citizenship, and the last thing Japan wants is to lose them.

Just don't show two passports when entering or exiting a country - use the applicable one only.

Very odd. The legal office on Iwakuni Marine base would be where to start. Then the US consolate in Hiroshima. Maybe he lost access to the base

YubaruMar. 16  03:16 pm JST

Local authorities in Japan handle various citizen-related matters, they do not issue Japanese passports; applications are submitted to the Passport Offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

Wrong.

Applications and issuance, of Japanese passports, have been handled by both municipal offices and passport centers within prefectures, for nearly 2 decades now.

Wrong. The Iwakuni City Municipal office does not handle J-Passports. But Passport applications are handled entirely by the 山口県旅券センター岩国支所 which is located within the same Municipal Office. But they have to submit everything to the 山口県旅券センターwhich is located at 〒753-8501 山口県山口市滝町1-1. The Iwakuni Municipal Office itself does not handle Passports, only usual 市役所 matters.