TOKYO: A total of 62.9% of people in Japan with foreign roots were questioned by police over the past five years, preliminary results of a recent Tokyo Bar Association survey showed, with the group saying the outcome is evidence of biased behaviour by officers.
The survey on racial profiling drew responses from 2,094 people with roots in foreign countries. The association said it conducted the poll after receiving complaints that many such people had been questioned by police apparently due to their appearance.
Among individuals who were approached by the police over the past five years, 50.4% were stopped "two to five times," while 10.8% were questioned "six to nine times" and 11.5% "10 times or more," according to the survey conducted between Jan 11 and Feb 28.
A total of 70.3% of those individuals said they "felt uncomfortable" with the police questioning, while 85.4% said the police approached them upon recognising they have roots in other countries. Most of those people believed officers had such an awareness because of their appearance.
A Japanese law governing police officers on duty allows them to question people if there are reasons to suspect they have committed an unusual act or crime. But 76.9% of people who were questioned by police officers in the survey said there was no reason for being treated with suspicion.
In a free description section, some wrote that after officers learned of their foreign nationality, they showed "overbearing behaviour" towards them.
The US embassy in Tokyo had warned on its official Twitter account last year that it had been receiving reports of "suspected racial profiling incidents" with several foreigners "detained, questioned and searched" by the police.
