Soon after I began living in central Tokyo I got an unexpected visitor to my apartment – a police officer. He just turned up one day, asked some routine questions, made a few notes, and then left. Slightly alarmed by this – (was it just me? am I on some kind of watch list?), I mentioned the visit to a Japanese colleague, who put my mind at rest: ‘Oh, that’s just regular police work. They do that sometimes. They’re just checking that you’re OK.’
‘Checking that I’m OK’? Is that what police are supposed to do? This was news to me. I’d grown used to the idea of police as people you call when something horrible happens, who then arrive (hopefully); express sympathy (again hopefully); leave, and then (once again… hopefully) take some action.
So to witness police making their presence felt in the community, looking for problems before they have arisen, actually policing the neighbourhood, was an odd experience, and, on reflection, a comforting one.
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