Koban

I had an interview (if you can call it that) with a Japanese policeman yesterday evening. I was alone at Khing's apartment when the doorbell rang, twice. I opened the door for a policeman. He asked if I spoke Japanese (in very clear English). Happily, Masako, who lives across the parking lot, had seen the policeman there and walked over. She explained that I didn't speak Japanese and did all the talking.

Turns out, he was investigating an ongoing feud on the second floor. He and his partner were interviewing neighbors about noise or other disturbances. Masako explained that I had only been there about a day, and that they wanted to talk to Khing. So, she called Khing on her cell phone and asked him what he had seen and heard, then relayed his answers to the policeman.

Two things impressed me about this incident. First, the policeman was the calmest, quietest, person I've ever met. His voice was so smooth and pleasant and his manner so polite that it was impossible not to like him. Second, I thought the contrast with police in the US was interesting. There, police who received a complaint about noise would come around, tell the two families to shut up, then come back after somebody got shot. Less facetiously, they'd see if a crime had occurred and arrest the perpetrators. Here in Japan, they saw their job as restoring harmony in the neighborhood. Masako, when she volunteered to call Khing and interview him herself, seemed to see that as her job, too.

This made me wonder if Japan has more police, so that they have time for this sort of thing. Actually, they have fewer than we do. Japan has about 1.8 cops per 1000 residents, while the US has about 2.18 cops per 1000. I guess there is just less crime to keep the police busy.