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The Fukuoka District Court has begun the trial of a 30-year-old Vietnamese woman who originally came to the country on a technical trainee visa. She stands accused of drugstore shoplifting, with the merchandise she took primarily being cosmetics, medicine, and clothing items.
She’s not suspected of just a single robbery, either. Investigators say that during 2018, she committed 38 counts of shoplifting in Fukui, Mie, Aichi and Mie prefectures, pilfering a total of 2,229 items worth roughly 6.48 million yen. The police say she would enter the store with a large shoulder bag, sometimes stuffing it with as many as 150 items in a single run.
But even those startling numbers pale in comparison to the ones investigators give for the woman’s associates. The police claim the woman was part of a group of six Vietnamese nationals who had come to Japan for technical training programs, the five others all being men between the ages of 24 and 28. Collectively, the group is suspected of 109 counts of shoplifting across eight prefectures, once again with drugstore cosmetics and medicine as their primary targets, with their total hall calculated at 2,229 items worth 12.58 million yen. After the thefts, police say, the group would then attempt to resell the items to prospective customers, primarily Vietnamese social media users.
While the incredibly large number of items the woman is accused of stealing may make her seem worthy of master thief status, she was also arrested multiple times for shoplifting in 2018, three times in Fukui, and three times in Fukuoka. Considering that she’s also been found to have overstayed her visa without acquiring any other sort of Japanese residency permit, it’s likely that regardless of the verdict regarding her shoplifting charges, she faces deportation once the trial is over.
Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Fukui Shimbun Online via Jin
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© SoraNews24
19 Comments
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kurisupisu
What an entrepreneurial spirit!
sensei258
If she was arrested multiple time, why the hell didn't she get any jail time? Hard to shoplift from inside her cell.
Hiro
Multiple times? Took forever to deport her. And what about the rest of the group?
SaikoPhysco
What a joke..... at what point do the point the finger at themselves for not kicking her out of Japan.
kohakuebisu
Even if you strip it of the usual soranews sensationalism, a quite surprising story, but one that shows how law enforcement works in Japan. That is, it basically doesn't work. Everyone is simply trusted to be a good person. Those who are not are free to get away with whatever it is they are doing time and time again. This includes things that are way more important than petty theft.
Pukey2
Exactly. How on earth was she caught multiple times. I thought NJs were thrown out as soon as the first offence is committed.
Strangerland
I've seen that stated on this site before. It's not true though.
oldman_13
First impressions are everything.
Fair or not, the negative actions of a few will always affect the greater majority of that group.
These thieves are to be fully blamed for their actions and the repercussions from those actions, and no one else.
TIJ
I see people shoplifting in Tokyo every day; both Japanese and non-Japanese. Seriously. I am not joking. A few examples 1) an old grandma-type comes into my local supermarket with a grocery bag from that market. Grabs a basket and loads it up with food. Then goes to the bagging counter to bag her un-purchased items and then splits out the door. 2) A guy walks into Hard Off. Grabs a thin computer monitor off the shelf and tucks it under his arm as best he can, and then strolls out the door while the staff are helping real customers. 3) Three people enter a clothing shop in mid-Winter wearing no jackets (they are westerners that do not look poor). They each choose a jacket, put them on, and out the door they go.
doel jusino
WHY is Japan so soft on non-Japanese thief's YET so hard on Japanese thief's ??? If this women / thief was arrested numerous times ( three times in Fukui, and three times in Fukuoka ) why was she not convicted and put in prison ??? I lived in Japan from 1979 thru 1989 and since 1989 I visit japan 8-10 times a year and I have never committed any type of crime in Japan or any other country. When in Japan I visit family, friends and just enjoy my time out & about. These type of foreigners make all foreigners look bad. Hope she is convicted thrown in prison then sent home to her country.
Lorem ipsum
Ok, so why didn't you do something about it every time you noticed? Like, block them from leaving, notify the staff, or record them?
TIJ
@Lorem ipsum
You DO NOT want to get involved if you are a foreigner. I once gave an antique 1000 yen note to my buddy, who's in the US Air Force, to give to his 8-year-old son. He liked the antique money so much he carried it everywhere. Well, he eventually lost it while going for a walk, so we went to the police to report the lost note. The police immediately accused us of stealing the money we lost. After a couple hours of BS, we gave up and left. Luckily, we later found the 1000 yen note after a thorough search of the walking route. I've heard of other cases where a foreigner calls out some misdeed perpetrated by a Japanese person (theft, chikan, assault, etc), and the accusations are immediately turned on the foreign accuser.
Strangerland
If you don't speak Japanese - maybe. But I've intervened in multiple incidents in Japan without troubles. Just don't touch anyone.
kurisupisu
As a percentage of all crime in Japan then foreigners really don’t figure.However, from April Japan will be allowing hundreds of thousands of indebted foreigners into the country.
Foreign crime will rise and the newspapers will report the unruly foreigners which in turn will lead to increased policing, crackdowns and the rise of the far right!
kurisupisu
If a foreigner here becomes involved with the police then it can mean lengthy periods answering questions about yourself rather than the incident.
It is wise to consider if you have the time to do so...
Strangerland
Well, that has nothing to do with being a foreigner - same thing happens to Japanese people.
JapanFan
Why wasn't she and her accomplices jailed after the first offense and then booted out of Japan? I just don't get it.
trinklets2
@loren @TIJ, I once saw a male Asian foreigner who slipped under his armpit something in a rectangular box. I followed him for a minute and waited for him near the cashier's counter and looked at his underarm and on his basket. There was no more bulge on his underarm and I couldn't see any rectangular thing inside his basket. After paying, he hurriedly left while I told the cashier what I saw. And guess what the next time I went to that super market I was being tailed. The moral is just be mum otherwise they'll think you're one of them!