Another Evil Foreign-looking Devil Busted!!! (Oops!)

(Note: This post has been self-censored.)
This is probably part of the "Justice" Ministry's policy, which as I recall is termed something like "anti-internationalization." The ever vigilant Japanese law enforcement professionals saw a suspicious gaijin-looking woman who averted her foreign-looking eyes from them and they immediately sprang into action and stopped and questioned her. When she could not prove in a way which they would accept that she was not a foreigner, they arrested her for not carrying the ID card which all non-Japanese are required to possess and carry at all times. Even worse, she was in possession of an envelope which had dirty gaijin Portuguese words on it. My god, did this woman have no shame?

Well, it turns out that she was Japanese! She just looked "south-Asian." Isn't it funny how when the Memoirs of a Geisha movie came out there was such a fuss by a few Japanese and many foreigners about the use of Chinese actors, because they claimed that it is always so easy to tell the difference between the Japanese and the Chinese and other Asians by physical appearance alone? (Many believe the Japanese are a separate race. In fact, the mistaken idea that ethnic and national groups are separate races is not uncommon in a lot of Asian countries and probably elsewhere too. Can you accurately and consistently tell what country a Caucasian is from by his/her physical appearance?) Gotta wonder how the wonderful, super sharp, nearly perfect, Japanese police could make such an error.

But don't worry, I am sure that after holding her for nearly 24 hours for lookin' like a furriner, they apologized to her. It was wrong to arrest a Japanese citizen by mistake. Now, were a non-Japanese arrested by mistake, that might be less of a problem.

See the story at: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200603010151.html

THAT LINK MAY DISAPPEAR, IF IT DOES, I WILL TRY TO FIND A NEW ONE.

I wonder how long it will be before that link is removed. I just found that this blog is being translated into Japanese. (I guess that can help me study Japanese, if the translation is accurate. It is automatically translated---it updates the Japanese as soon as I post in English. Automatic translation is often terribly inaccurate as to be worthless*. I can usually do better reading the Japanese, even with so a poor knowledge of kanji.) *Just checked, it translated my use of Japanese, meaning language, to Japanese meaning people.

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fjapanlost.blogspot.com%2F2006%2F02%2Fstudying%2Djapanese.html&wb_lp=ENJA&wb_dis=

I have had several links disappear in the last few weeks.