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Osaka immigration footage shows mistreatment of detained foreigner

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Root of Japan's immigration bureau is prewar and wartime Japan's secret police who arrested and tortured and killed people who criticized government.

32 ( +48 / -16 )

I don't see any excessive force in that video. He wasn't what I'd call physically cooperating. 14 hours handcuffed is quite long though, but other than that, no.

-8 ( +33 / -41 )

Fujii was left with his arms handcuffed behind his back for more than 14 hours on Dec 20, 2017, after he expressed dissatisfaction with his lunch and became violent.

So what did he expect would happen? A pat on the shoulder and his lunch brought to him on a silver plate? Let's see how far this case goes. In any case, it's safe to say he got his.... just desserts.

0 ( +33 / -33 )

The video submitted as evidence in the lawsuit was not shown in court, but his lawyers disclosed some of its content after the court had adjourned.

Does that mean that the judge can choose to view the evidence or not view it?

Strange!

29 ( +36 / -7 )

The immigration centers are absolutely terrible. Even during the COVID situation, there's no spacing between people waiting, staff don't speak any foreign languages, they are often very rude and absolutely no help. I speak some Japanese and have helped multiple foreigners with their visas. One foreigner had an unfortunate mistake and the staff was absolutely revolting. They shouted and treated him like a criminal. Luckily all worked out in the end.

22 ( +34 / -12 )

SpeedToday  07:09 am JST

I don't see any excessive force in that video.

Where did you see it?

13 ( +18 / -5 )

This video was shown on the AM news today, and while it all depends upon one's definition of "torture", he was obviously abused, and being left handcuffed in his cell for over 10 hours was uncalled for to say the least,

I am REALLY surprised that the video was released, because it sure as hell makes the officer's here look like they are a bunch of goons!

28 ( +36 / -8 )

Does that mean that the judge can choose to view the evidence or not view it?

It even happens in the US and other countries. Judges can review and deem evidence inadmissible, meaning the court won't see it. I imagine the judge has seen the video.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

On the Odakyu Line Shinyurigaoka station immigration office the people are very friendly and kind. @Nic, where was that abusive office you went to?

If this guy is Peruvian and Japanese decent doesn’t Japan let those people stay in Japan?

-10 ( +6 / -16 )

The problem seems the Peruvian man was handcuffed for 14 hours in cell. No one punched him out and choked him.

11 ( +18 / -7 )

Sounds like he was handcuffed and held down because he was being violent. Not sure what the problem is here.

6 ( +24 / -18 )

Google Living While Black in Japan

-3 ( +10 / -13 )

In a separate case, the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau last month disclosed edited security camera footage to the family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in March following mistreatment while in detention.

Edited huh? Gee, I wonder why... And didn't they say that the video was deleted or lost or otherwise unavailable?

Root of Japan's immigration bureau is prewar and wartime Japan's secret police who arrested and tortured and killed people who criticized government.

YUP!

10 ( +20 / -10 )

I have written about my 11 days of solitary confinement in a rural prison and then 43 days in the Osaka Immigration Center quite a lot here in the past.

I saw much much worse than this. I saw a guy fought and dragged by about 15 guards from one end of the center to another. He was a big African doctor who had been cheated out of his PHD research by a Kyoto University professor. Once he completed his research they cancelled his student visa. So he was very grumpy.

The crazy thing about my experience was that it took 53 days to learn that I could get bail if I paid a bond. They required $30,000 we had to carry it around in cash to 3 different places. They would not accept a bank transfer.

I was suspected of volunteering as a translator without a work visa. Was never charged with anything.

27 ( +38 / -11 )

The Peruvian man had to be subdued and handcuffed by immigration officers because he was particularly unruly and uncooperative. He had been detained because he had overstayed his visa. He’s a criminal and immediate deportation should apply in cases like these or we’re only helping publicity seeking “human rights” lawyers make money.

-11 ( +16 / -27 )

It's clear from the clip made available for the public that it's just a snippet of what's been provided to the court, so none of us really have any clue how the man was treated during his detention.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Pandering to criminals only encourages them to escalate the severity of their crimes.

This person showed blatant disregard for the laws of a modern civilized country, was ungracious when served nourishing food, and acted with extreme violence toward his hosts.

Keeping him cuffed for 14 hours is nothing, in many countries he would have been beaten within an inch of his life and tossed into a punishment cell for weeks of solitary confinement.

Yet Japan still offers the kindness and benevolence to care for his illness. He should be ashamed.

-7 ( +15 / -22 )

Fujii was left with his arms handcuffed behind his back for more than 14 hours on Dec 20, 2017, after he expressed dissatisfaction with his lunch and became violent.

Under the circumstances, behaving in any violent manner is going to have consequences. Honestly I don't have anywhere near the sympathy for him as I do for the Sri Lankan woman whom I suspect needlessly died while under Immigration's custody for which I firmly believe Immigration should be prosecuted.

1 ( +13 / -12 )

Reading comments above I am really shocked how easily people accept and condone state violence and call a visa overstayer a "criminal " etc.

Most people react to how they are treated. Seems immigration in Japan treat people like crap.

"The quality of mercy is not strained "....think about it.

-4 ( +11 / -15 )

There are countries where police and immigration officials are above the law. There are countries where the police officer draws his weapon first and then asks questions. And then there are countries where there is a controlling authority above the police, the immigration officer and the police officer are not gods and would have a lot of explaining to do for a similarly mishandled and escalated situation. Many people don't even think about the fact that they don't know what preceded the whole thing. What preceded his dissatisfaction with his lunch and subsequent violent outburst. Now imagine, moreover, that many democratic countries have a clause in their constitution that gives the right to resist. No, not armed resistance.

And to argue that in many countries it is common to be in handcuffs and solitary confinement? Well, that says a lot. So obviously we are on the same level as the countries in question, where "he would have been beaten within an inch of his life and tossed into a punishment cell for weeks of solitary confinement"

4 ( +12 / -8 )

i'm curious if they pick and choose their victims? i.e. if he is American, do they dare to lay their hands on him...

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Japan loves to portray themselves as this kingdom of kindness which welcomes and supports foreigners with the best omotenashi imaginable. However, long-term foreign residents are aware of the dark side of this society. Discrimination, nationalism and feeling of superiority are often palpable in the interaction with us foreigners.

6 ( +16 / -10 )

Not so good story for Gaijins. Do they ever support Japan truly other than complain about the Japan this and that?

Well, considering many gaijin in Japan are highly qualified, they assure that Japanese companies stay competitive and they also pay a lots of taxes, probably more than some Japanese. Those foreigners who don’t fall in that category keep the Japanese service industry alive and keep on smiling even when Mr. grumpy salaryman goes irate for waiting for a few seconds at the register.

If you talk about direct support of Japanese, my faculty in Germany had a lots of Japanese exchange students and we approached them positively to make friends with them and help them out. However, when we went to Japan on a year abroad we all were surprised that no Japanese students took the chance to approach us first. Of course, cultural differences, but it goes both ways.

3 ( +12 / -9 )

It is a shame that Japanese immigration centre guards instead of protect these people they mock them and use violence on them,Japan is in many ways still very racist.

4 ( +16 / -12 )

MableToday  12:33 pm JST

However, long-term foreign residents are aware of the dark side of this society. Discrimination, nationalism and feeling of superiority are often palpable in the interaction with us foreigners.

That's true of every country on this planet. Japan is probably way less than most Western nations and other Asian nations as well. At least you got to experience what most non-caucasian people feel in Western countries.

1 ( +14 / -13 )

Regardless of his behaviour in the lead up to what happened I think handcuffing someone for that long could be considered excessive and unnecessary.

In light of recent incidents I’m wondering if there is a review of use of force policies in the Immigration Bureau.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

The world is not as you imagine. Comparatively, Japan is rather benign. Compare Japan to the USA or other western nations. Let alone, genuinely oppressive regimes. The postings of rather naïve foreigners, citing anecdotal representations or the few noted examples from the media, are essentially clueless.

Japan is a rather pleasant culture and mondo civilized. The rules are easy to cognate and follow. The oft pseudo-insights into the culture by many who post are annoying and self-indulgent and ignore an odd self centered and very western perspective. Which is somewhat bigoted or simply ignores the fact of where they live. Japan. Immigration, for most, is no a problem.

-2 ( +13 / -15 )

And.....water is wet!

I do not think that anyone who has lived in Japan or visited for a significant amount of time would be surprised by such revelations!

This is not the first incident of abuse that has made the media rounds.

The shock is the Japanese government's response to the blatant abuse.

5 ( +14 / -9 )

Why have these immigration officers not been arrested? Probably because in Japan immigration falls under the jurisdiction of Japans Ministry of (so-called) justice.

1 ( +9 / -8 )

i'm curious if they pick and choose their victims? i.e. if he is American, do they dare to lay their hands on him...

Generally speaking, Japanese culture only kicks non-Japanese people when they are down, regardless of their country of origin.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Another scene showed an immigration officer intimidating Fujii by asking him whether he was prepared to follow their orders.

Intimidating? Lol, they are standing there nicely asking him to follow orders, and he goes lunatic on them. What a joke this guy is and whoever wrote this article.

-11 ( +4 / -15 )

Like it or not!!!!!!

Only in Japan!!!

Loooooooooooooooool

Yeh, in any other country they would have beat the living crap out of this maniac.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

I guess that only foreigners could be mistreated in an immigration center.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Very nasty.

Detained was chained, in sensory deprivation, for 14 hours straight.

Makes me wonder what other punishments did the agents applied on this detainee to make him that upset.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

bokudaToday  05:22 pm JST

Very nasty.

Detained was chained, in sensory deprivation, for 14 hours straight.

He was detained as an immigration violator. He was handcuffed, not chained. And being put into an isolated room is nothing like "sensory deprevation".

2 ( +9 / -7 )

JapantimeToday  05:11 pm JST

I guess that only foreigners could be mistreated in an immigration center.

Gee, how many citizens of any country go through their immigration centers? And how many non-citizens who go through an immigreation center go "violent"?

4 ( +9 / -5 )

He was detained as an immigration violator.

Ooh!! "immigration violator"! What an indigenous crime!

isolated room is nothing like "sensory deprevation"

In the video you can the the cell. It was very much sealed with no windows.

But, yeah, you're right, is not a full-blown sensory deprivation.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

JapantimeToday  05:11 pm JST

I guess that only foreigners could be mistreated in an immigration center.

Could you please reiterate a key point? i DidN'T know there are Japanese people detained there.

Heck. For these idiotic posters, there should always be , wherever, whoever, even for criminals ( Yes, Crime)

OMOTENASHI -treatments JUST IN JAPAN.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

South Americans of Japanese decent and Central Americans as well are allowed to come on home. Why are they kicking this guy out?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Shinkansen Cabbose

Lol, the guys at your local immigrations are nice and polite? Way to miss the point man.

This isnt immigrations, but the detention center/prison.

Rip up ur visa and go walk to your favorite polite immigrations center and declare yourself illegal.

I think then you will see how nice they really can be.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Lol, the guys at your local immigrations are nice and polite?

Yes, in other civilized countries they are polite and professionals. Staff tries to make your stance the most pleasant possible.

If you break the law being impolite to the immigration staff or your fellow detainees, you'll be arrested and go to a courtroom.

Can't see any good outcome with all the violence Japanese agents are showing in the video.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Yes, in other civilized countries they are polite and professionals. Staff tries to make your stance the most pleasant possible.

Like which country? and they keep you politely and professionally forever?

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Like this will make a difference. There's a reason why Japan is ranked near the top in human rights' abuses and dead last in the G20 for treatment of refugees, and there is no way the court is going to find the Osaka Immigration Bureau guilty of anything, especially after they said there was no mistreatment and the court won't comment now after the video.

They'll say something like, "We recognize that the man in question was treated regrettably, and is owed restitution, so we award him 50,000 yen, minus the costs of medical treatment, which are in the millions, and his stay in detention, but we cannot find the Bureau guilty of mistreatment."

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Original article notes that he had two nationalities which should not be acceptable according to law but the right of return for all Japanese that left a generation or two ago pushed o wars by the Japanese Rae govova e them and families guaranteed return rights. There are thousands here from century and South American countries.

He took Japanese as his given right. Treat him as a National not an illegal alien.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Can't understand the need for this violence.

Isn't there a process in place for dealing with conflictive detainees.

I doubt very much that chain 14hours in isolation is part of the immigration rulebook.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Every person on here sayin “he was only handcuffed for 10 hours, that’s not that bad” have clearly never spent even 10 minutes cuffed. It is painful and excruciating. I can not imagine how awful 10 hours would be.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I can compare Japan with the UK and have experience of both immigration services.

In fact, I am helping a Japanese national with a possible Visa infringement at the moment in the UK.

She’s in no fear of being incarcerated or beaten or tortured due to a small overstay that may occur.

Of course immigration bureaus are not the best places to visit even in the best of times.

However, I can say that the Japanese immigration service is an outlier due to the number of deaths, beatings and abusive behavior that surface from time to time.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Based on the latest event and articles concerning the Immigra. services in Japan, it sure looks like they just don't have the proper training on how to handle detainees, or how to process these cases.

It's a shame that this department has been involved in such misconducts and abuses of detainees, and I hope the government will clean up this section as soon as possible.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The guy sounds like an idiot who overstayed his visa and then has the balls to complain about his lunch? Then on top of that got violent. What did he think would happen? I got scars on my wrists for being handcuffed in a Thai prison for almost 24 hours over a misunderstanding. I'm sure the Japanese were nicer to him than the Thais.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

@HiJapan Today 12:37 am JST

Every person on here sayin “he was only handcuffed for 10 hours, that’s not that bad” have clearly never spent even 10 minutes cuffed. It is painful and excruciating. I can not imagine how awful 10 hours would be.

I'm sure it's unpleasant. The question is whether it is disproportionate to do that against someone who betrayed the visa-issuing country's trust, then compounded that by violently attacking officers at the detention facility. Since he's already been deprived of liberty, that's no longer a punishment.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

kurisupisuToday  03:02 am JST

I can compare Japan with the UK and have experience of both immigration services.

In fact, I am helping a Japanese national with a possible Visa infringement at the moment in the UK.

She’s in no fear of being incarcerated or beaten or tortured due to a small overstay that may occur.

Of course immigration bureaus are not the best places to visit even in the best of times.

However, I can say that the Japanese immigration service is an outlier due to the number of deaths, beatings and abusive behavior that surface from time to time.

How exactly are you helping overstayers in UK? Besides, what is your definition of a small overstay ?

Please enlighten us here on the boards, how is UK treating those who rejected deportation order?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Too much omotenashi for those willingly overstaying and knowingly breaking the law, spitting on the lunch and going violent. Of course the posters here keep spitting on Japan without any follow-ups or referring to the fact that this guy actually had been probationally released most of the time since 2017 and has just been entitled to national health insurance and special permission to stay... and is now about to receive surgical operation for his cancer here in Japan, replying to TV interview... " Thank you... thank you"......

Just the heck, how many Japanese are struggling for jus the lunch he had spit on these days.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@kennyG

You're off topic.

We ain't talking about spitting lunches or cancer operations.

The main subject is the abusive treatment detainees are receiving at immigration offices.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Well, I’m kinda shocked from some comments taking on criminal side of this stuff.

Some ppl expect all Japanese MUST do omotenashi treating for every single foreigners including criminals or something???

dont you think that lil too arrogant? Lol

First of all, obey the law, obey the rules, and once officers asking questions just answer it like a normal person. Nothing difficult!

Don’t go to different countries with an illegal status!!

What you expect breaking the law from the very first step coming to a different country?? You still expect omotenashi for them treating like special guests? Seriously?

If you don’t wanna be sent to the immigration enter, just do not break the law. Bring good visa!

If he acts like an ordinary person with GOOD STATUS, this never happened.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@Majidetekitouittenna

The guy is a Nikkei, has the Japanese citizenship as birth right. Stop calling him a criminal.

The guy should call you out for harassment and insults and you'll become the criminal.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The guy is a Nikkei, has the Japanese citizenship as birth right.

Why did immigration detain him?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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