Alright so I was actually going to do a totally different video today
on laws in Japan but then I realized
A. There is a lot of good content out there for it and
B. None of them really cover the three
main points I want to cover today which are really
simple things that might get you in trouble in Japan.
*sneeze* oh boy,
I really hope that I don't have hay fever.
That's a thing that happens by the way, people who live in Japan long enough
who have never had hay fever or allergies before can develop them.
and I've been sneezing a lot this year.
There is a pigeon coming. What's up pigeon?
That's the pigeon.
Alright guys welcome to the video, I'm going to try and cover
a fairly serious topic without making it
overly serious. I want to talk about a couple things
that you can end up bringing to Japan
unsuspectingly, totally normal things
that might end up getting you in trouble
with the police, detained, or even arrested.
I want to start by saying that I
am by no means a legal professional and
mostly for that reason I a going to encourage you guys to
do your own research. When it comes to these types of things
but I am going to share anecdotes and stories that will
hopefully give a little bit of context to all
of this.
So I just want to jump right into things, there
are three main things I want to talk about today. So all of this
actually started back in the summer when my little brother Alexander
came to visit me here in Japan. We were
planning on doing some camping
and he suggested bringing along
walkie talkies
and my instant reaction was no don't do it
for one main reason, you see the walkie talkies that are
used in most counties around the world that use frequency bands like FRS
and UHF and I don't know all the technicalities,
but they're not really legal for use here in Japan.
There are tons of websites that document all the details.
So I wont go super technical but I will say that
it interferes with things like the
emergency bands for police, firetrucks and all that
it interferes with television waves,
and so much more, trains, you name it.
I would personally just play on the safe side and
probably not bring them but
there are cases of people who have been in Japan
who have been caught using these
and found themselves in fairly big trouble.
One of the most famous cases that I heard and its why I told
my little brother like don't bring them into Japan just don't
bring them was a case of a bunch of like
motorcyclers who came into the country
rented motorcycles and used their
used their walkie talkies as they were traveling and on
day two they were stopped by the police
and it became a whole big thing.
And because walkie talkies are such a
normal thing back home in most countries you wouldn't expect
to get in trouble for bringing something as simple as
a walkie talkie. Now I know a lot of people are probably gonna jump in and be like
but there are entire radio shops in Akihabara that sell
walkie talkies and radios and everything like that and
a lot of them run on a different band or you need to be licensed for
them. Again I don't know all the details.
I'm not a radio pro but if you're thinking about bringing
walkie talkies to Japan
Do your research or just avoid it altogether.
I don't know about you but I kind of already want to change
up the scenery a little bit.
Alright that works. Now the second one is going to apply to a lot
less people but this one was more of a
surprise to me than anything. So I was sitting there with a friend and he
was talking about how a locksmith buddy of his
came in through Haneda airport like a year or
two ago and this person is a registered
locksmith back in the United States and when they landed in
Japan, they had their locksmiths kit.
Their little tool kit
in their bag. They got held right there at the airport
because any lock-picking tools
are completely and utterly illegal
in Japan. Again I don't if the licensing and
all that is for it. All I know is that you can't have it.
One of the reasons that I brought this up was because I was scrolling through
Instagram the other day and like this ad for like you know
lock-picking stuff for some like, you know one of those
Chinese cheap sites came up
And I was like I wonder if they would actually allow me to purchase this and
as I was looking through it
I realized, ya actually I could purchase this
and ship it to Japan, there's nothing on there
that says I can't ship it and something like that can really throw
off an unsuspecting buyer who sees it online
and is like well you know international shipping
everything's available nowadays. You
end up buying something like that and it turns out it's not legal
and it's such an unsuspecting thing. It's just, it's a lock-picking kit.
and again it's not like the average person is really going to want a
lock-picking kit.
But I guess the moral of this part of it is that the most
tiny, unsuspecting thing can end up getting you in
a lot more trouble than you would expect and potentially
ruin your trip to Japan. Something like
walkie talkies or a lock-picking kit.
Depending on your country these may be completely and
utterly normal things to have.
Change up the angle a little bit. I really like this sakura tree.
Anyways back to the main topic. This next one's going to be
really important to hobbyists and people who are looking for
alternative ways just to get around Tokyo
or Japan. Surprisingly, enough
you may run into trouble using things like
roller blades or skateboards.
Let me explain and I'm going to try and go
as basic as possible. You see in Japan
roadways are designated for cars
and bicycles and sidewalks for the most part are
designated for pedestrians and bicycles.
There's a lot more detail and technicality in there
that I am just going to kind of blow over. The main point being
there's no specific designation for something like
roller blades or unicycles if you're
a unicycler for some reason, which is actually really
popular in Japan.
or skateboards,
Now there is a law
that states that these can be used but they can't
used on major roads. I'm not
going to go deeply into the details of what a major road or
frequently used road is. Simply because
it doesn't really matter. It's like a certain number of cars, bicycles
and pedestrians per hour but the main point is
that it's a real grey zone. This for the most part is
on purpose. A lot of Japanese laws leave a
bit of ambiguity or grey zone in there to enable the authorities
to interpret and use that law
as they see fit based on the situation.
Now as someone who uses a penny board to get
around Tokyo quite often, every now and then the police
will stop me and be like "mmm can you get off the board?" and I just
get of the board and say "Yep, sorry, no problem."
and make it along my way. Kind of want to change this up again
Alright, I'm aware that, that is almost no change at all
but I like having this little guy in the shot.
Getting back to things, more importantly than just
skateboarding and rollerblading and all that. There's one
really important one that might actually lead you to breaking the law
and getting in a lot of trouble. See recently
I went to Brisbane Australia and those little
electronic scooters, the little lime scooters
or you know they're named different in every city,
are insanely popular.
That kind of thing will get you in big trouble in Japan.
Like a year or so ago a company sent me
one of those electronic scooters
and an electronic skateboard to zip around Tokyo on and
I ended up stopping using it really really quickly when I
found out that you can get in really big trouble
for using those. In Japan
any motorized vehicle under
5CC's is considered a genski,
it's kinda like
a low powered motor vehicle. If you've seen everybody's
favorite Mario karts that are driving around those are also
classified under the same thing. If you have something that has
two wheels, you are legally required to wear a helmet,
three or more I don't think you are, again don't quote
me on it and along with this
classification comes it's own set of rules
and laws for example, you have to have
a license plate and a car license at the very
least to drive one of these. They can't go on the
sidewalks, etc. etc. etc. So,
if the police were to see you zipping down the road on a motorized
scooter or skateboard you could
potentially land yourself in a lot of trouble.
Which going back to the lock picking thing
is one of the tricky parts because getting these into Japan
isn't all that hard. That company sent
me an electronic scooter and a motorized
skateboard. They had no problem getting it through
customs and it went right to my front door but
actually using those on the roads is a
totally different situation. Now those are
the big ones but there are also a slew of minor
things that you should watch out for. For example if you have
prescription medications and you're traveling to Japan
make sure A) that your prescription medication is
allowed in Japan because some aren't and B) whether it's allowed or
not definitely make sure you carry your prescription slip.
You can get in trouble for that. Even Tylenol with codeine
codeine is a no go in Japan. Other ones that throw
a lot of people off. You are legally required to carry either your
passport or your residence card in Japan and
not carrying one of these can land you in hot water but something like this
the police are more often than not pretty kind about it.
I actually almost never carry my passport or my
residence card and in the odd time that I've been asked
to show ID, I've shown my drivers license and they said do you,
do you have your residence card? and I'm like uh at home and they're like
for future reference you need to carry that, um
we could technically go to your home right now
just to confirm that you actually have it. We're not going to do that cause
we can see that you have a Japanese issued
drivers license but point in case they're
usually pretty nice and they tend to be
more so as long as you are nice and respectful
of them. I can't really emphasize that enough.
So I know these aren't the big broad super applies to
everybody in the world information but
I do hope that this video helped you in one way or
another. Usually I would say leave questions in the comments
below but more than anything I encourage you
guys to really really do your own research.
There are countless other websites and youtube videos out there
documenting things that can get you in trouble in Japan
but I hadn't actually seen these points covered in
any video so I wanted to
share these with you guys today in the hopes that
maybe they'll be useful to you. If they were at all
or if you even just enjoyed the video it would mean the world to me
if you would give it some love
and if you leave me something in the comments below
if you are new to the channel, I would love to have you consider
hitting that subscribe button, maybe check
out another video or two. And you guys know...
I will see you again...
real soon.