The police came to my house

Yesterday afternoon while working from home the doorbell of my apartment rang.

As usual I was hesitant about letting anyone know that I was in but quite often, in fact most of the time, it’s someone delivering parcels.

I picked up the intercom and thought about leading with an English “Hello!” (to put me on the front foot, in a way) but instead just went with something Japanese - “Hai!”

It was a police offer. 

They identified themselves as being a police officer working at the city branch and had come from the koban (police box) in front of the station near where I live. 

Well, I’m usually OK with dismissing door-to-door sales types with a quick, “Iya. Daijobu desu.” but I didn’t feel comfortable taking this approach with the police so I answered the door. 

He looked like a police officer - stab vest, gun, … those ill-fitting trousers that they wear. In fact, I’m as sure as one can be that he was a police officer without actually being 100% sure. 

Anyway, he was perfectly polite and pleasant despite me being somewhat wary and questioning.

After identifying himself once again he asked me if I had a short time to talk. He was doing the rounds, he said, collecting names and contact phone numbers of local residents in case of an emergency. He used a tsunami as an example.

I said, “OK.” I thought to myself, do they really do this? 

He asked me where I was from. I told him. He asked if I live alone. I told him I live with my wife. He asked if I had a residence card and could he see it. I went away and produced it for him reluctantly - everything is in order, I just didn’t really like the idea of having to produce ID in this way.  

He started jotting down my gaijin card details on this simple form he had shown me and as he was doing so he asked me how many years I had been in Japan. I actually think he was just being chatty but I kind of resented any idea of being questioned so I just told him that I’d been here for a long time. He responded by complimenting my Japanese - an act of default politeness over here. 

Anyway, after handing back my card he asked for an emergency contact number and also the name and date of birth of my wife.

I asked him again to explain what this was for. He was polite and friendly and explained to me again, this time with extra emphasis on it being perfectly normal. 

I gave him the rest of the details. 

I also asked if this was a new thing the police were doing as I’d been in the apartment for, what, six years, and had never received a visit from the police, for this or any other reason.  

He said that no, this was not something new, that other residents would have received a visit but that it was his first time to come to this apartment.  

OK.

He wrapped things up by telling me that if I ever experienced any trouble, like noisy neighbors and the like, then to please call the police. 

I thanked him and we said our goodbyes.

Then I immediately went back to my laptop and googled, “police came to house japan,” or something like that. 

To relief of a certain kind, I found other examples and voices of people having received the same kind of visit from their local police officers.  

I also found some English-language explanations about door-to-door visits by local police officers, called “junkai renraku,” on the website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

I’ll copy and paste in the text here:

“Officers assigned to the police box in your neighborhood have been making door-to-door visits called “junkai renraku”.　Junkai renraku is a means for the police to inform you of crime and accident prevention in your neighborhood by visiting each house or office in person.”

Here’s the link: https://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/multilingual/english/about_us/activity/door_visit.html

So, it kind of seems like business as usual. When my wife came home she also didn’t sound so surprised. In fact, she said that we had received a similar visit at our last place of residence some years ago.

To be honest, I’m not so anxious when it comes to matters of privacy but I kind of did resent being asked to produce my gaijin card. I’m pretty sure that had my Japanese wife answered the door, she wouldn’t have been asked to produce any ID. 

Still, it is what it is, and now that I know this kind of thing happens and is to a certain extent standard procedure, I no longer feel so concerned about it. To that end then, I hope this post can offer some assurance to others. 

Have you ever received a visit from the police in Japan?