Many people may think that they have nothing to do with fist fights. However, according to Hiromasa Hasegawa, a lawyer who specializes in criminal defense, "Most adult fights involve ordinary people who are unlikely to get into a fight."
Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo (right) holds a press conference about the assault incident. It was Ebizo's wife who reported it first. (PANA photo)
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Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo (right) holds a press conference about the assault incident. It was Ebizo's wife who reported it first. (PANA photo)
One of the most common cases is trouble with taxi drivers, where a drunk passenger gets into a fight with the driver. If a drunk passenger falls asleep in the taxi, "the moment the driver starts shaking them at their destination, their defense instinct may be to instinctively hit the driver. If the taxi driver calls the police in this case, the drunk passenger will be at a huge disadvantage," according to the same source.
It's important to be careful about how much alcohol you drink, so you don't get into a taxi drunk and wake up surrounded by police officers.
Be careful of traffic troubles too. If you get out of the car, the remove background image other person may say that they "pushed you" even if you did nothing. If the other person gets a doctor's note, you may be suspected of assault even if you did nothing. There are "professionals" who are used to these kinds of troubles. Even if you are provoked, it would be safer not to get out of the car, but to call the police from inside the car on your cell phone.
In this stressful society, small things often lead to fights. Even if it is just a small skirmish, violence is a serious crime. If you use violence against someone, it is an assault crime (Article 208 of the Penal Code). If you injure someone, it is an assault crime (Article 204 of the Penal Code), and the statutory penalty is imprisonment for up to 15 years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.
It is dangerous to let your guard down and think, "It's okay because both parties were involved in the fight." "Both parties are punished in a fight" was one of the legal principles in medieval Japan, but in modern law, the idea of both parties being punished in a fight between adults does not exist. Attorney Hasegawa explains as follows:
"If two people hit each other, then in theory they are both perpetrators and victims at the same time. However, the police don't judge them that way. They try to settle cases by fitting one person into an easy-to-understand structure where one person is the perpetrator and the other is the victim, so even if in reality both parties were at fault, sometimes only one person is made out to be the perpetrator."