The police in Japan can hold you for 24 hours if they suspect you are involved in a crime, and quite often they can "renew" that holding period until a confession is presented.

If they get that confession, its all the evidence they need, regardless if its real or if you simply cracked.

I also fail to see why getting arrested is "fun".

Life happens once and to experience new and unusual things or situations is to live a full flavoured life.
During my life I have met some very colourful people that would have loved the easy way of the JP police. I for instance have been assaulted by the British police with no provocation, I have had guns, knives, bottles, bats and more used against me in various situations but I was arrested for helping a bike out of a bush which for me is very funny.
Due to my actions I was able to see the JP police force first hand at work and for me this was a interesting experience. I am just trying to relate my POV of policing in JP as opposed to UK, USA and Europe.

In the UK police are military, In USA police are semi-pro, in Japan police are hobby.

Did you ever think about why that might be?

A "hobby"? Did you really mean to put it that way?

He does.

What many people don't understand is the KOBAN system. Instead of having all the cops sitting in one police HQ, in Japan they are spread out all over in tiny little offices called KOBAN. In a country with almost no guns and almost no drugs the need for SWAT-type personnel is minimal.

When is the last time you have asked a cop for directions in the US or UK? I never have. But I have probably done it a dozen times in the few years I lived in Japan.

So yes, they aren't trained to sleeper-hold people tripping on meth, and it is easier to see them as weaker in Western eyes...and in many ways they are weaker...but they are stronger in other ways that a trip to jail and playing with the windows in the back of the policecar probably won't show you.

I understand what you're saying... But, I still wouldn't exactly consider that a hobby.
A cop is still a cop.

I'm just being anal about his use of words.

To be honest, I feel the same way. I don't feel that calling a person's job as a cop in Japan a "hobby". As you put it, a cop is still a cop. They still have their duty to protect and help those within the country.

I wish I could say that the US could get away with such things, as in hardly any gun related fatalities. I think, for my paper, I'm going to use Japan as my other example as a country where owning guns isn't permitted.

Japanese police officers may seem meek, and in most circumstances they are. But it's a cultural thing, all Japanese are meek to a certain extent. But all police officers here are trained in Judo and Kendo, so if you get one worked up to the point he grabs that meter long night stick from his bicycle, you are probably going to get hurt.

There is no ACLU in Japan. Outside in public the police may seem overly polite and understanding to criminals, but if you push them too hard when there is nobody watching, don't be surprised if they push back hard enough to make you look like you fell down a flight of stairs.

In most cases foreigners who commit minor infractions are dealt with using kid gloves. Larger infractions will get you deported quickly, and directly. You won't even have time to go to your hotel or apartment and collect your belongings. You will also be prohibited from returning to Japan for anything from 4 to 8 years.

Serious lawbreaking results in serious punishment here. If you are a foreigner, and have a good lawyer, you'll like get away with instant deportation and a lifetime ban from returning. If your lawyer is not so good, or your crime is violent, you'll spend some time in a very small Japanese prison cell before your permanent deportation.

The death penalty is strangely applied here. If you are sentenced to be executed, there is no date set. It can occur at any time without warning, from a few months to a few years. Condemned prisoners have no idea when they are going to be executed until they are led from their cell to the execution room.

As I write, I'm listening to the traffic drive by on Yaesu-dori (street) in Central Tokyo. The nearest police koban has only one prisoner today, a stray dog who was probably caught urinating in a prohibited place (there are "do not let your dog urinate here" signs all over the neighborhood). He'll be detained until his owner comes to the koban to bail him out.

Owning guns in Japan is permitted. There are about 200,000 people (regular citizens, not police or military) in the country licensed to own firearms. And gun violence does exist here. The mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a gangster in a dispute over the gangster's damaged car and the city's refusal to pay for the damage. In another case, a woman at a health club was shot and killed by a stalker.

The most recent murder in the news was committed by another stalker type who killed his victim with a knife and then dismembered her body. Last month a police chase which ended near my home at Kujikuri Beach involved a man who was fleeing after being seen putting the dead body of a woman in his car. The car crashed into a pole down the street from where I live, and then burst into flames. The man was later caught, and the woman's burned body was recovered from the car.

Violent crimes do occur here.

This makes me wonder, what would you have to do to get into big, hardcore jail in Japan?