on laws in Japan but then I realized

A. There is a lot of good content out there for it and

B. None of them really cover the three

main points I want to cover today which are really

simple things that might get you in trouble in Japan.

*sneeze* oh boy,

I really hope that I don't have hay fever.

That's a thing that happens by the way, people who live in Japan long enough

who have never had hay fever or allergies before can develop them.

and I've been sneezing a lot this year.

There is a pigeon coming. What's up pigeon?

That's the pigeon.

Alright guys welcome to the video, I'm going to try and cover

a fairly serious topic without making it

overly serious. I want to talk about a couple things

that you can end up bringing to Japan

unsuspectingly, totally normal things

that might end up getting you in trouble

with the police, detained, or even arrested.

I want to start by saying that I

am by no means a legal professional and

mostly for that reason I a going to encourage you guys to

do your own research. When it comes to these types of things

but I am going to share anecdotes and stories that will

hopefully give a little bit of context to all

of this.

So I just want to jump right into things, there

are three main things I want to talk about today. So all of this

actually started back in the summer when my little brother Alexander

came to visit me here in Japan. We were

planning on doing some camping

and he suggested bringing along

walkie talkies

and my instant reaction was no don't do it

for one main reason, you see the walkie talkies that are

used in most counties around the world that use frequency bands like FRS

and UHF and I don't know all the technicalities,

but they're not really legal for use here in Japan.

There are tons of websites that document all the details.

So I wont go super technical but I will say that

it interferes with things like the

emergency bands for police, firetrucks and all that

it interferes with television waves,

and so much more, trains, you name it.

I would personally just play on the safe side and

probably not bring them but

there are cases of people who have been in Japan

who have been caught using these

and found themselves in fairly big trouble.

One of the most famous cases that I heard and its why I told

my little brother like don't bring them into Japan just don't

bring them was a case of a bunch of like

motorcyclers who came into the country

rented motorcycles and used their

used their walkie talkies as they were traveling and on

day two they were stopped by the police

and it became a whole big thing.

And because walkie talkies are such a

normal thing back home in most countries you wouldn't expect

to get in trouble for bringing something as simple as

a walkie talkie. Now I know a lot of people are probably gonna jump in and be like

but there are entire radio shops in Akihabara that sell

walkie talkies and radios and everything like that and

a lot of them run on a different band or you need to be licensed for

them. Again I don't know all the details.

I'm not a radio pro but if you're thinking about bringing

walkie talkies to Japan

Do your research or just avoid it altogether.

I don't know about you but I kind of already want to change

up the scenery a little bit.

Alright that works. Now the second one is going to apply to a lot

less people but this one was more of a

surprise to me than anything. So I was sitting there with a friend and he

was talking about how a locksmith buddy of his

came in through Haneda airport like a year or

two ago and this person is a registered

locksmith back in the United States and when they landed in

Japan, they had their locksmiths kit.

Their little tool kit

in their bag. They got held right there at the airport

because any lock-picking tools

are completely and utterly illegal

in Japan. Again I don't if the licensing and

all that is for it. All I know is that you can't have it.

One of the reasons that I brought this up was because I was scrolling through

Instagram the other day and like this ad for like you know

lock-picking stuff for some like, you know one of those

Chinese cheap sites came up

And I was like I wonder if they would actually allow me to purchase this and

as I was looking through it

I realized, ya actually I could purchase this

and ship it to Japan, there's nothing on there

that says I can't ship it and something like that can really throw

off an unsuspecting buyer who sees it online

and is like well you know international shipping

everything's available nowadays. You

end up buying something like that and it turns out it's not legal

and it's such an unsuspecting thing. It's just, it's a lock-picking kit.

and again it's not like the average person is really going to want a

lock-picking kit.

But I guess the moral of this part of it is that the most

tiny, unsuspecting thing can end up getting you in

a lot more trouble than you would expect and potentially

ruin your trip to Japan. Something like

walkie talkies or a lock-picking kit.

Depending on your country these may be completely and

utterly normal things to have.

Change up the angle a little bit. I really like this sakura tree.

Anyways back to the main topic. This next one's going to be

really important to hobbyists and people who are looking for

alternative ways just to get around Tokyo

or Japan. Surprisingly, enough

you may run into trouble using things like

roller blades or skateboards.

Let me explain and I'm going to try and go

as basic as possible. You see in Japan

roadways are designated for cars

and bicycles and sidewalks for the most part are

designated for pedestrians and bicycles.

There's a lot more detail and technicality in there

that I am just going to kind of blow over. The main point being

there's no specific designation for something like

roller blades or unicycles if you're

a unicycler for some reason, which is actually really

popular in Japan.

or skateboards,

Now there is a law

that states that these can be used but they can't

used on major roads. I'm not

going to go deeply into the details of what a major road or

frequently used road is. Simply because

it doesn't really matter. It's like a certain number of cars, bicycles

and pedestrians per hour but the main point is

that it's a real grey zone. This for the most part is

on purpose. A lot of Japanese laws leave a

bit of ambiguity or grey zone in there to enable the authorities

to interpret and use that law

as they see fit based on the situation.

Now as someone who uses a penny board to get

around Tokyo quite often, every now and then the police

will stop me and be like "mmm can you get off the board?" and I just

get of the board and say "Yep, sorry, no problem."

and make it along my way. Kind of want to change this up again

Alright, I'm aware that, that is almost no change at all

but I like having this little guy in the shot.

Getting back to things, more importantly than just

skateboarding and rollerblading and all that. There's one

really important one that might actually lead you to breaking the law

and getting in a lot of trouble. See recently

I went to Brisbane Australia and those little

electronic scooters, the little lime scooters

or you know they're named different in every city,

are insanely popular.

That kind of thing will get you in big trouble in Japan.

Like a year or so ago a company sent me

one of those electronic scooters

and an electronic skateboard to zip around Tokyo on and

I ended up stopping using it really really quickly when I

found out that you can get in really big trouble

for using those. In Japan

any motorized vehicle under

5CC's is considered a genski,

it's kinda like

a low powered motor vehicle. If you've seen everybody's

favorite Mario karts that are driving around those are also

classified under the same thing. If you have something that has

two wheels, you are legally required to wear a helmet,

three or more I don't think you are, again don't quote

me on it and along with this

classification comes it's own set of rules

and laws for example, you have to have

a license plate and a car license at the very

least to drive one of these. They can't go on the

sidewalks, etc. etc. etc. So,

if the police were to see you zipping down the road on a motorized

scooter or skateboard you could

potentially land yourself in a lot of trouble.

Which going back to the lock picking thing

is one of the tricky parts because getting these into Japan

isn't all that hard. That company sent

me an electronic scooter and a motorized

skateboard. They had no problem getting it through

customs and it went right to my front door but

actually using those on the roads is a

totally different situation. Now those are

the big ones but there are also a slew of minor

things that you should watch out for. For example if you have

prescription medications and you're traveling to Japan

make sure A) that your prescription medication is

allowed in Japan because some aren't and B) whether it's allowed or

not definitely make sure you carry your prescription slip.

You can get in trouble for that. Even Tylenol with codeine

codeine is a no go in Japan. Other ones that throw

a lot of people off. You are legally required to carry either your

passport or your residence card in Japan and

not carrying one of these can land you in hot water but something like this

the police are more often than not pretty kind about it.

I actually almost never carry my passport or my

residence card and in the odd time that I've been asked

to show ID, I've shown my drivers license and they said do you,

do you have your residence card? and I'm like uh at home and they're like

for future reference you need to carry that, um

we could technically go to your home right now

just to confirm that you actually have it. We're not going to do that cause

we can see that you have a Japanese issued

drivers license but point in case they're

usually pretty nice and they tend to be

more so as long as you are nice and respectful

of them. I can't really emphasize that enough.

So I know these aren't the big broad super applies to

everybody in the world information but

I do hope that this video helped you in one way or

another. Usually I would say leave questions in the comments

below but more than anything I encourage you

guys to really really do your own research.

There are countless other websites and youtube videos out there

documenting things that can get you in trouble in Japan

but I hadn't actually seen these points covered in

any video so I wanted to

share these with you guys today in the hopes that

maybe they'll be useful to you. If they were at all

or if you even just enjoyed the video it would mean the world to me

if you would give it some love

and if you leave me something in the comments below

if you are new to the channel, I would love to have you consider

hitting that subscribe button, maybe check

out another video or two. And you guys know...

I will see you again...

real soon.