Man arrested for scattering anti-Olympic flyers from train

Who is going to see the fliers in a subway tunnel? He should just have handed them out at the front of the station.

The arrest on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business.

‘That’s an odd charge? What business? The trains? the Olympics?

when a piece of thrown paper becomes something other than a littering fine, you know something is not going to end well for free speech, the right to protest.

Think about the environment.

Flyers on the ground, no one would bother picking them up to read. Instead you just wasted paper and gave more work to the cleaners.

He was probably in a rush home to watch the Olympics on tv.

Littering really warrents an on the spot fine, rather than an arrest.

Perhaps the flying flyers, potentially proliferating the prefecture are the “force” the police policy prohibits?

“The arrest on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business.” -

He admitted, is remorseful, will pay a fine for littering and this, “forcible” charge, will most likely, be “non-prosecuted”.

“The incident did not disrupt train services.” -

The arrest on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business came as some parts of the Japanese public oppose holding the games amid the coronavirus pandemic.

So according to Pravda here, the 80% of the Japanese public who opposed the games are just some parts. Pfft.

The arrest on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business

and

The incident did not disrupt train services.

Sounds like they need to let him go with a warning and focus on more serious crime.

political motivated charges, trumped up from at worst a warning for littering. Sad state of affairs in a vibrant democracy?

@CrickyToday 07:38 am JST

Yuji Usui allegedly threw several dozen flyers from the window of the Nagoya subway's Tsurumai Line onto the tracks at around 11:15 a.m. Friday, hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Tokyo, according to the police.

Did you read the part where they went onto the tracks? Are you sure this will never derail the train?

The arrest on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business came as some parts of the Japanese public oppose holding the games amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Legal sanctions assigned according to the socioeconomic position of the perp, not the crime.

The loudspeaker election cars patrolling in neighborhoods are a egregiously forcible obstruction to the business of sleeping in on a Sunday afternoon but do not suffer arrest.

This is an egregious abuse of the freedom of speech .

when a piece of thrown paper becomes something other than a littering fine, you know something is not going to end well for free speech, the right to protest.

There is no free speech in this country. Just listen to the music, watch some tv and see how people react when you really want to say something intelligent. Your only free to talk about how great everything is here.

"on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business".

So, when someone "threw several dozen flyers from the window of the Nagoya subway's Tsurumai Line onto the tracks at around 11:15 a.m. Friday, hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Tokyo", it's forcible obstruction of business. When the right wing cars with speakers annoy pepople, stop in front of a store and scream their hateful rhetoric, it's okay, no obstruction here. It seems to me that the more subtle the form of protest, the greater the punishment. And the more radical the form of protest, the more likely no one will be punished.

arrested for what? Littering? Or having an opinion?

Seems a bit late to be doing this to start with.

BungleToday 11:42 am JST

Unless the flyers were sellotaped to bundles of steel rebar at the time, unlikely.

Unlikely. In other words, you aren't sure. Which means reasonably to be safe the railway company would have to cease usage of the track, go down, and collect those papers off the track. That's already valid obstruction. That you may personally sympathize with the man does not mean the railway company and the police don't have a valid claim in this case.

Littering yes.

Obstruction of business, no (a ridiculous authoritarian, anti-democratic charge if I ever heard one, putting business before the rights of the people).

I agree, handing them out would be more efficient, chucking them out the window of a train is probably not the most efficient delivery system he could have used!

Where is this man now? Locked up for 23 day, (longer if he does not confess to the trumped up charge of forceably obstructing business). Interrogated by a trumped up bureaucrat called a Japanese prosecutor.

The Japanese (so-called) justice system at it's best, yet again.

I appreciate the sentiment, and I am totally with him on being against the Olympics but I don't think this is a very effective protest and littering isn't a great look either. I don't think many people are going to be picking up fliers from a station floor to peruse them, assuming they don't just end up cluttering the tunnels.

Also the charge is disruption of business? Not littering? The article even says in the next paragraph that the incident did not disrupt train service.

Obstruction of business, no (a ridiculous authoritarian, anti-democratic charge if I ever heard one, putting business before the rights of the people).

Are you kidding me? Businesses are run by people! Without businesses, the people have nothing except for what they can make themselves, which is very little. Without businesses, we'll be headed to a pre-civilization era.

@AddfwynToday 09:59 am JST

The article even says in the next paragraph that the incident did not disrupt train service.

By this standard, as long as a detonating bomb does not turn out to "disrupt train service" (because it didn't pack enough punch) it's not obstruction of business.

Freedom of speech is absent in Japan – the police see to that

Freedom of speech is absent in Japan – the police see to that

That’s not true at all and you know it when comparing with your or most other countries. You can say or write anything, but of course also other rules are still to abide to. In this case, no littering and no disturbing of commuting and the business or company that provides it. He could have given the leaflets to bypassing people and everything is fine, maybe he has to ask the town office beforehand, I don’t know, but that’s surely one possibility to distribute own opinions. The same for affixing posters on rented space etc. Or he could write comments and articles in newspapers or bring a paid announcement etc. , publish an own book, put his message onto his car or personal clothes and so on. Finally he could write something here and it will be visible for some minutes until the big MOD deletes or censors it, which is just his method of expressing opinion and freedom of speech. You can say it, they can agree or delete it. That’s the balance kept. lol

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

By this standard, as long as a detonating bomb does not turn out to "disrupt train service" (because it didn't pack enough punch) it's not obstruction of business.

I mean...yeah. If it didn't disrupt any service and everything continued as normal, pressing a charge of "obstruction of business" would be a very strange choice in that situation as well. You could charge them with numerous other things instead that make more sense, like detonating explosive material. Outside of your hypothetical though, even a minor bomb probably WOULD disrupt train service if they stopped trains to investigate.

If the business proceeds as normal with no disruption, it wasn't really obstructed was it? I don't see any charge that makes sense in this scenario except littering, which by all means he should be charged with.

@AddfwynToday 05:41 pm JST

That depends on whether you think what's condemnable is that service was indeed blocked, or that he did something intending to produce a concrete danger of blocking the service. Realistically, nobody deliberately puts something on train tracks without at least intending the latter. As a matter of jurisprudence, Article 234 is classified as 具体的危険犯 (konkrete Gefahrungsdelikte) rather than 侵害犯 (Verletzungsdelikt).

Don't allow your personal hatred of the Olympics to cause you the misjudge the extent of the criminal law. It might be dangerous to your personal liberty.

ahhh....good old passive aggression. Japan loves a bit of it......lets not ACTUALLY protest the olympics by handing the flyers out to people in the cars or in front of the station....no....lets throw them out the window and onto the tracks, deep in the tunnels of the subway system where no one will ever see them!! LLF