crime

Japanese man to become police officer in New Zealand

24 Comments

A Japanese man will become the first Japanese police officer in New Zealand, Kyodo News reported Monday. Nao Yoshimizu, 30, will join the police force in Auckland from September. According to Kyodo News, Yoshimizu was born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, and moved to New Zealand with his family when he was 15. He has obtained a permanent resident status.

Auckland has experienced an increase in crimes targeting Asian residents, Kyodo said. Yoshimizu was quoted as saying, “I would like to become a crime buster.”

After working for his father's car factory, he graduated from the police academy last Thursday and will be assigned to a local police station in Auckland from September.

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24 Comments
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he'll be in for a shock as I don't think Kiwis have kobans with comfy beds in the back room

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Great news, will permanent residents in Japan be considered for police jobs in Japan?

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Auckland has experienced an increase in crimes targeting Asian residents

Why targeting Asian Residents? Any info on this..?

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hoserfella

Why a shock? He's been in New Zealand for the past 15 years and has no experience with Japanese kobans. You could think of that yourself too, right?

Confederate2008 "Great news, will permanent residents in Japan be considered for police jobs in Japan?"

No. Why should they? Because one Japanese guy became an officer overseas?

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Confederate2008 - yeah, like that`s ever gonna happen.

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Really not out of line over here in Canada (do note Cdn is such a young country compared to the age of Japan) for RCMP to city police officers are often North American Indians to Chinese (could be ex-Japanese as well) to East Indian people that have been here for the given time to become Cdn citizens & then applied for city police or RCMP training. This also includes FEMALE police officers as mentioned above.

Good luck to the chap over in New Zealand.

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I'm sorry, but why is this news? He's been living in Nu Zilund for 15 years (half his life). I'd love to become a Japanese cop. I drove past a radar trap yesterday. There were a dozen cops there. Three on cubby bikes and the others were all sitting in the shade doing nothing! However, the cops in Nu Zilund have it pretty tough.

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roomtemp: to hire an asian into probably a mostly white police force ensures the public trust is upheld in the face of crime against the asian community. The police force should reflect the public after all. Thus the changing face of NZ is reflected in it's laws but also those who enforce them.

for japan then, for violence against non-japanese would they consider residents who are also non-japanese? Or are residents to be forever considered non-members of the community? BTW, are there any non-asian police in Japan? With the Diet interested in getting new immigrants to Japan, a lack of diversity does not allow people to feel comfortable coming forward given the news.

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It is not uncommon for many police departments, not just Japan, to not accept a non citizen/national. Even the RCMP requires members to be Canadian Citizens. So yes there could be Japanese-Canadians, but they are Canadian citizens not Japanese citizens (though I doubt there are any in the RCMP, but there could be). Do departments hire minorities elsewhere, yes, but again most cases they are citizens.

On the other topic of recruiting officers that reflect the community, in the US there's always been a problem recruiting Asian-American police officers, mainly due to historical reasons, parents coming from countries with corrupt police forces or no trust in public authority, or parents wanting them to be doctors, lawyers etc, but not police officers.

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Good, he left his father's factory and now employed as police officer. (better pay, i guess).

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roomtemp: to hire an asian into probably a mostly white police force ensures the public trust is upheld in the face of crime against the asian community. The police force should reflect the public after all. Thus the changing face of NZ is reflected in it's laws but also those who enforce them.

A mostly white police force? Wow someone has no idea of NZ - believe it or not, its police force (and most public service areas) have a pretty representative spread of ethnicitys. Especially in customs/immigration and the police force. I am not sure why this is even news - a PR in NZ has almost equivalent status to a citizen apart from the passport & reciprocal rights in Au/UK - they can vote, serve on jury, take out a student loan, study at domestic student fees...not sure why it is news that one is now a police officer?

There is a big Asia task force police based in Auckland - and a huge Asian population. For example, 75,000 Koreans or so living in Auckland which only has a population of a million. Increase in crimes targeting Asian residents stems a lot from Asian crime gangs too - like the group of Japanese students who bashed their slightly retarded Japanese class mate and ditched his dead body. And financial fraud etc. And plenty of overstayers! Makes sense to have native speakers with an understanding of the culture for these types of crimes, no?

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Hmm having re-read the start of the article I see that he is the 'first' Japanese Police Officer in NZ so I guess that might make it news? Although my friend is a cop and his mum is Japanese. Maybe the 'half-ness' of him means it doesnt count.

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roomtemperature- Its called "ironic homour", but I guess that went right over your head, didn't it?

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roomtemp

No. Why should they? Because one Japanese guy became an officer overseas?

Why indeed that wud make Jpn look a little progressive, might even show they care about its minorities, cudnt have that now cud we, wud make Jpn look a little modern in its thinking, nah cant have that.

But boy oh boy Jpn can be proud as hell of this young man, but deaf dumb & blind when looking at things right here at home.

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EH? Why is this in the crime section? More erratic news filing, JT.

Moderator: Law enforcement comes under the category of crime.

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gues what?? now throngs of Japanese tourist will flock NZ and hourdes of them will appear asking for photo ops and autographs...good way to bring in some tourist dollars..huh

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Great news, will permanent residents in Japan be considered for police jobs in Japan?

it would be great to have New Zealand men in the kobans here. I approve it. Please apply. :)

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This could only be news in Japan where xenophobia means foreigners here with the same resident status as he has in NZ, means diddly squat here in Japan!! Japanese must feel so proud of this guy joining the cops in NZ, but in the west, we've allowed foreign nationals to join our police forces for decades! Get over yerselves Japan!

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WOW,

I've always been sooo interested in police officers in New Zealand.

Thank you for the news.

loool

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This good news from New zealand and new zealand police.

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I don't think there's a vast amount of crime among the (comparatively small) Japanese community here in Auckland....

Interesting that this guy is still on PR status, when he could have obtained NZ nationality years ago. Presumably he's keen to hang on to his Japanese passport.

As Stanoue said, people in NZ with PR have almost all of the rights of those with NZ citizenship (including eligibility under the reciprocal health agreements with Aus and the UK). We'll be applying for NZ citizenship just as soon as we're eligible (after 5 years as permanent residents). An NZ passport is far more convenient for international travel than a Russian one....

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He probably wants to keep the passport so that when he returns to Japan he's not thought of as a potential terrorist or criminal, and has his fingerprints taken.

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This is no big deal, New Zealand has quite a healthy mix of Moari in its police force, and Australia has always been very progressive having at least two from Africa and numerous others from various Asian countries.

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If you like to know what the nz police are dealing with on a week by week bases. check the nz web site Emigratetonezealand, the cops have their work cut out not for the faint hearted.good luck to all police they do great job.

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