6 Year Old Japanese Kid was INTERROGATED By Police FOR THIS... 

I remember seeing some US TV news about a 8-9 years old boy getting arrested at school, in the middle of lesson, cuffed then locked in a police car for a while because his mother had not paid for the cafeteria lunch for some time...

“i’ve been in this fight since i was six years old”- that kid

Ah so that's how Ace Attorney was made. If only the police were handling more serious crimes instead of abusing children

Kids got a legit villain origin

They wasted the police officers time to traumatize their kid as punishment. Fucking hell.

When my kid was 7 they stole sweets from the supermarket. We took her back, she apologised, paid for them out of her pocket money. Also had to donate an equal amount to the foodbank collection. Never did it again. Teaching your kids not to steal is not hard, it just takes effort. Cops for a 6 year old's first offense? Total overkill.

Japanese police be like : Six year old return the eraser she stole and hr ago ...better put her on death row ... Middle age dude molests a high school girl better give a fine and a slap on the wrist and somehow blame the girl We do justice here

There are time when kids don’t understand money. They can accidentally put it in the pocket and leave. Regardless, it’s important to teach kids what they did wrong and give them a proper punishment, like doing chores to make money and pay it back. This excessive punishment will make kids not trust adults, the police went overkill, how do you trust the police afterwards

My first thought was would the police upload the children into their system for such a petty crime and if that would affect them getting careers later on in life

The punishment should fit the crime. If the punishment is this severe and getting away with it is less severe, this teaches kids its better to not return it.

All this teaches the kid is that they better not admit when they did something wrong because they'll get punished horribly for it.

The kid is going to learn that they should not very admit to any mistakes.

They definitely got too much free time if they’re willing to interrogate someone who barely has any vocabulary for 3 hours.

The 6 year old interogation story seems like it doesn't actually teach responsibility and owning up to one's mistakes. It only teaches fear of the repercussions of getting caught. My view of the moral of that story is NEVER own up to your misdeeds in Japan or try to make amends with anyone you've wronged. Trying to make things right will be used as evidence against you and will only ever hurt you because forgiveness doesn't exist and people don't care about your honesty or honor your heartfelt desire to learn fron your mistakes, be a better person, and do right by them. I'm not saying this idea is an actual thing in Japan in general, but in this specific situation it would be a logical takeaway for a child to have. Someone apologizing over some minor indiscretion is not the time to go all Law and Order on them.

The only lesson the kid learned is to not get caught next time. These types of overreactions for a situation where no one was hurt instills resentment and spite, which leads down a path of serious crime.

I wonder how clearly foreign/hafu the little girl looked (since her dad was foreign), and how much of the asshole behavior of the store clerk and cops came from that.

When I was 5 I shoplifted a thing of m&m’s. Now I didn’t think I did anything wrong because I didn’t understand what money was yet!!! 🤣 My mom told me off me and brought the candy back to the store when she saw it. And that’s how I learned we have to pay for things. I can only imagine how hard I would be crying if I was INTERROGATED BY THE POLICE because of this! That is literally scarred for life stuff.

I feel like the lesson she'll take away from this was distorted from 'don't do bad things, and if you do something bad you should apologize and it'll be okay' to 'once you do something bad it's all over, so never get caught'. Sure the former is a little lax on discouraging bad behaviour, but the later is pretty much encouraging deceit (which will obviously lead to bad behavior).

I was a police office in the mid 80s in Chicago. I wouldn’t mind it so much to have a parent call the police to put a little fear if there was an actual crime involved such as in the first case. However I had parents who just would use police as a parenting or enforcement tool where there was no crime. Something like “Eat your peas or that police officer will arrest you.” Only thing that teaches a child is to fear police. If they ever need help at an early age they won’t go to an officer. The main story is fricken insane. I once worked the station lock up where some officers arrested a developmentally challenged teenager for stealing a candy bar. So seen this stupid behavior before.

And yet when a group of kids bully their classmate to death they get nothing but a slap on the wrist, have their identity hidden and able to start a new life. Maybe this is the reason why Japanese public nowadays want to make sure no kid is left unpunished.

California man here again - yeah the police would laugh at you if you called for those reasons (at least at most cities here) The only time I've EVER had to call for police/emergency services was when I saw a car fly over the center divider into a tree. You know, a real important situation lol

This is how you make your kids either afraid to do stuff that will might result in a person's negative reaction, such as failing an exam because you just made them afraid of any reprimand or reprimand adjacent experience OR, they will never confess to any wrong doing, or even just slight mess ups, possibly both

If this really happened then that store owner was being very extreme.

The upstanding 30 year old dude did justice in traumatizing a 6 yr old child....

Simular thing was done to me by my dad when I was 5 or 6 years old. I had taken my dads multi-tool that had a knife in it to school to just show my friends because I thought it was cool. I got to school and showed it to my friends and we had a good time, no teachers saw and no kids other than my friends saw. When I got home my dad came up to me and asked me why I had taken his multi-tool, before I had the chance to explain he asked me if I had threatened anyone with it in a very scary angry manner. I remember being so scared I just said yes to everything he had said thinking he would stop screaming at me sooner. He told me to call the person "I had threatened" to say sorry, I just mentioned one of my friends that I had shown the multi-tool to and my dad called him and handed me the phone. I just said "sorry for what I did today during break at school" and my friend was confused and just said "it's all good" realizing (I think) I was in trouble for bringing the multi-tool to school. After hanging up he said that we had to go to the police now. Me obviously being very scared I just agreed and followed him into the car. When we got there my dad told one of the police men there what I had (not actually) done. The police man suggested showing me the prison cells, luckly there was nobody there (This happened in Iceland so crimes almost never happen). After showing me the prison cells we went back home and my dad just told me to go into my room and stay there while everyone else got to watch TV. TLTR; When I was 5-6 years old I took my dads multi-tool to school to show my friends, dad found out and took me to the police station thinking I had threatened one of my friends with it, I was shown the prison cells but there were no prisoners there at the time luckly. Note: He found out 13-14 years later (one of my sisters told him after I told them about this) that I actually hadnt threatened anyone with his multi-tool, he still has not said sorry. (I don't expect him to)

Calling police on your child is stupid, that kid will is never gonna tell anything to their parents anymore, whether it be drugs or some cult, their parents have lost their kid's trust for life..

Garnt attempting his best to stay on the fence about this topic even though its obviously some of the most insane shit a child could go through

I live in rural Scotland and taking your kid to the police station to "teach them" is definitely a thing, but to a small and privileged (and very white) niche of people who have friends/family in the local station and have a mega rosy view of policing. For the staff, it's not too much of an inconvenience (they usually have a heads up, and it's refreshing to deal with a kid as a break from alcoholism/drugs/suicide the usual rural policing sad times, and small station staff have a bit more free time) but it always felt weird to me.

Here's my ranking of "most at fault" for this case: 4. The parents. Taking the kid to return the thing and apologize was perfectly reasonable. 3. The kid. They're six, and it was an eraser. 2. The cops. See above, the response was way overblown. 1. The store guy. Fucking snitch.

Store owner calling the cops on a 6 year old just teaches the lesson of: If you didn't get caught, don't give anything back and don't admit to it.

I love how when groomers groom actual kids, they get a slap at the wrist, but a child stealing an eraser, they'll banish her to the shadow realm, putting the fear of God in her It's a 6 year old child not even a double digits of age, like damn

If a kid returns something and gets a punishment like the police being called and being questioned for HOURS they will literally never confess. Ever again to anything..

i was in my early twenty i saw this kid so scared and confused because he forgot to brought money and decided to shoplift a packaged ice cream. i paid for his snack while the register asking the manager whether they should call cops or not, and i was like "DUDE, HE IS FUCKING FOUR"

I heard a Japanese principal had to apologize to the news for a student getting caught with weed lmfao.

In the US if you do stuff to kids, the punishment is like 10 years in prison with a 50/50 chance of surviving till the end if anyone knows why you are there.

I was probably around 10, and I stole toy cars from this store from time to time, and I got caught by my gramma one day. She made me put the toy back, and she brought me to the police station just so a police officer could tell me what happens to people for stealing. Long story short, I never stole again 🤣

Imagine being able to say you’re such a badass you got your first mug shot at the age of 6.

When I was maybe 6, I stole a teddy bear from a dollar tree (my reasoning was because it had a stain on it and I was worried no one else would want it and I didn't want the teddy bear to be sad and lonely) I'm sure my parents and cashier knew and my parents just paid the $1.05 for it but when we got home, my parents asked me what the bump under my coat was and I just said "I grew boobies" I'm 26 now and I still feel bad for stealing a dollar teddy bear and for lying 😅

that kid will not trust their parents after that, huge betrayal of trust rather than teaching a lesson about morals and values they instilled fear in them

Imagine how often this happens and goes unreported due to the culture

The girl is going to develop a phobia towards erasers.

I had the same reaction as all 3 of them combined. How the fuck do you get this much trouble for stealing an eraser at age 6!?

Sounds like a senator moment. "My source is that I made it the F up".

The kid gain street cred 😂😂

Describing Japanese police as babysitters sounds about right lmao. My friend shared an anecdote about one time he was in Japan (we’re both half Japanese living outside of Japan,) there was one lone nationalist doing some sort of protest/demonstration. But the only person paying attention to him was some bored looking old guy in a police uniform LMAO 💀 on another note- maybe if they took reports of sex crimes and DV more seriously they’d have more serious work to do. Just a thought 🤷‍♂️

The reaction isn't so different from most places. While this is a lot tamer, there's plenty of cases where news will break out of a cop shooting a kid who was unarmed or just a case of violence against someone whose committing petty theft and the general consensus is they always love saying "Play stupid games win stupid prizes" or a tangent how they would've shot the person dead.

The thing about getting the police involved for minor things involving children, it's probably alright if it's your friendly neighborhood officer that the parents already know have a tame discussion with the child along with the parents about real life potential consequences of their actions if it were to continue, why it's wrong, understand why they did it, steps to make sure it doesn't happen again, make them return it in person and apologize, and pay for it either with their allowance money or with chores so they understand the value of money, ect. That would be the furthest I think it could go without traumatizing the child to the point of no return. I say this because when things are taken so far to the point that an adult is using the police as a way to intimidate and threaten children over small things, you instill fear and mistrust of both law enforcement and their guardians who put them in that situation in the child. As they get older they will be less likely to reach out to their parents or the police if they find themselves in a dangerous situation in fear of the consequences, which in the worst case scenario could put their lives in what could've been avoidable danger. Not to mention if a parent, teacher, or guardian calls the cops on their own kid instead of trying to communicate with or discipline their child on their own, they could potentially be giving their child a criminal record even if charges are not pressed, for something they did at an age where they did not know any better, which could affect their ability to get a good job or into a decent college, either living in poverty or resorting to actual crime later in life if things get tough. I think that the parent who went to the store with their child and made them return it in person had the right idea, and that store keeper was absolutely mental for taking something like that so far, and the police even more so for entertaining the whole thing.

when i was a kid (4-5), i asked my dad for 2 chocolates at the supermarket, he told me to pick only 1, to wich i did, but put the other on my pocket so i could put it back later, fast forward, im at home and i find the other chocolate, i told my dad and he drove me 25 minutes to the store to make me apologize to the cashier and pay for it, at the moment i hated him and felt super humiliated but looking back i think it was the best lesson

I stole a chocolate from a shop once. The owner caught me. I tried to escape on my bike, but he grabbed my bike. He said he would keep my bike. And I must walk home and tell my father what I had done. Talk about walk of shame... But I never tried shoplifting again. ;)

11:35 "Your honor, my client pleads oopsie-daisy"

I’m probably overthinking this but was the shopkeeper not a fan of foreigners? Did he know that the dad was a foreigner? Was this in a rural part of Japan? I’ve seen and heard people of authority who don’t like foreigners and act against them. Racism is prevalent everywhere here.

the storekeeer had intrusive thoughts and just couldnt resist lmao

If that was my experience getting caught stealing, I'd say the solution is to keep doing it but don't get caught

This is a fucked up situation but i just picture the scene in Detroit become human where Connor interrogates the Android but its like Anya from Spy X Family.

2:00 ya I agree, if I was a parent I would bring my kid to apologize to the store and apologize as well. Calling the cops for something like that seems to drastic and I would be worried for my child’s safety w/ how the police in the US act.

Just dislocate his finger, then reset it. No harm done and I bet he’ll remember it 👍

Japanese police be like- Train Molestation: i sleep 6 yo steals eraser: real shit

That kid will never put any trust in his parents again. In my opinion, they should have made him return it and apologize but getting the cops involved could ruin any trust and open communication between them.

5:47 they interrogated an 8-10 year old for three hours?! That’s absolutely traumatizing.

I'm laughing because I'm so uncomfortable and shocked but I'm crying because for the child's future.

The police were completely in the wrong for taking that girl in for a 3 hour interrogation along w/ taking a mug shot. When the police got to the stationary store they should have resolved the situation there. Along with applauding the girl for returning the eraser & apologizing along w/ telling her not to do it again.

Policeman: WHY DID YOU SETAL THE CABLE!!!!? child: green crayons give me tummyaches

8:06 they wanted to question her without the mother...sounds illegal and probably is.

My opinion is it's a waste of police resources and time which you'd think from a country that you normally associate with conscientiousness is mind boggling. If a parent can't handle a situation like that on their own then either A) they made a human mistake, B) They're ineffective and wasteful, C) They're abusive and unempathetic, or D) all of the above.

As a parent, calling the cops isn't the first step. If the kid has been escalating and normal punishments aren't working....yah, I could see it.

DD is only a misdemeanor the FIRST time in some states. It's always a felony if you're caught a second time.

I'm sorry six!? That's messed up

Japan 6 year old steals eraser - gets traumatized US. 6 Year old steals candy bar - on first name basis with the cop.

Wow this is insane. That poor girl is probably going to have trauma from this

Pretty sure a 6 year old in Japan is under the age of criminal responsibility, and it's illegal to detain them for 3 hours and take their mug shot.

What did the kid learn? Don't cross the police? Sure. But also, that kid learned early never to be honest again. Kids mess up. That's just a truth of life. But thanks to this traumatic experience she'll probably hesitate to come to her parents anymore, whether she needs help or maybe needs to be accountable for something. Honesty should be rewarded and misdeeds must be appropriately explained before meeting consequences. Sometimes kids just don't understand certain concepts just yet. So sad for this girl.

I grew up in Scotland, and I store was a teenager, and my brother took me to the police station, and they scared the daylights out of me. I have a lot of respect for that.

Hello! Half Japanese and American here! Although they didn’t take me to the police station, my parents threatened me with it 😂

Villain Origin Story right there lmao

After hearing the second story, I might also respond to the first by saying "well that was brave," but in the sarcastic voice that actually means "that was reckless and potentially stupid, the consequences could have been much harsher than you wanted for everyone involved." Certainly wouldn't use brave in the sense of saying it was an honorably courageous act.

Working at a service station in Australia. If i called the cops everytime a customer did something bad, the cops would be their 24/7

The parents are considered brave cause something like this would tarnishing their reputation

“Call the school…” lmao, it’s more like the kindergarten😂

So they basically raise their child with fear instead of making it understand why that’s not okay. Not only consequence-wise but also from a moral standpoint.

Wow 6 year old story was pretty harsh. You know what really got stolen in that story? Her ability to take risks. She did something wrong but was probably scarred so much that she will be so risk adverse for the rest of her life.

FWIW, drunk driving in most of the US is usually a misdemeanor if it's a first or second offense (though it does vary by state); circumstances can also change things. Also IIRC and IANAL, but most misdemeanor offenses have less of an impact if enough time passes between arrests (so like... one DUI every 5-10 years may remain a misdemeanor even if it's the 3rd, 4th, etc. offense). DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT, I'M VERY MUCH NOT SURE, but IIRC, this is how it's handled for a lot of offenses, so drunk driving may be similar.

The first case seems a decent example of proper and involved parenting. Why: It’s apparent his parents were present with him at the police station and for the apology at the store. - involvement He’s a mentally healthy young man and has developed the capacity to know what is right from wrong and evaluate the extended consequences. - proper age and health He wasn’t interrogated and imprisoned by the police. But may well be frightened of the prospect. - scale He is given an invaluable lesson and snippet of what lies ahead if he continues with his crimes. - result It’s much different than dropping 8 year old Jimmy off at the police station for say… not getting off of the Xbox. That is not to scale, involved, and likely results in abandonment issues rather than any valuable lesson.

You went full American. Never go full American.

What I do with my nephew is say "you can't do this because...". I try to give an explanation as to why he shouldn't do a certain thing. Because if you yell, the kid will just not do the bad thing because they'll get yelled at. But if you explain it, they'll actually (hopefully) learn. For example we were at an amusement park eating something and he kept dabbing his food on the table. I said "Don't put that on the table because the table is dirty and you could get sick".

On the one hand having the cops scare him straight is a good idea. On the other hand this is the most American thing ever.

On the drink driving, I thought it was generally a $10,000 fine and a year in jail. Plus more serious charges if someone is harmed or even killed?

This is how villians are made

The parents should have taken the kid back to that store to apologize and he returns the stolen item and he has to do chores at home to earn the money to pay it off. The parents obviously pay the store for the item cause they likely can't resell it if it's open. The police shouldn't be involved at all unless the kid continues to shoplift

A whole hostage justice system in japan fits to this and is imho fucked up.

Police do this in the US SO MUCH. It happened to a friend of mine. I think the police really take it as a moral obligation or a power trip, not sure

For the first case where the parents called the police, I can see that happening in some communities in the US-- communities where the police aren't particularly busy, of course, and ONLY if the parents are calling the non-emergency number. I also have to wonder if maybe that child has displayed some other behaviors that has made the parents worried that if they don't make the child face reality now, it will come down much more severely on them later. It could also be that there is someone in their family who they watched grow up never being held accountable enough until they screwed up too much, and suddenly it was game over. As for the second case, it does seem like an overreaction from the store owner to call the police over one stolen eraser, but maybe that's not the whole of it. Maybe his store has had an increasing problem with kids stealing things, and that particular child just happened to be the last straw. He decided to make an example out of her to discourage other children from stealing.

I live in Wisconsin. I sometimes forget how, I’m gonna say odd, our drinking laws are. Then I see two Brit’s and an Aussie, who work and live in Japan, reference my state and it reminds me. We seem to have global recognition of our basic alcoholism. 😂

I feel like calling the police on something that you've returned to steal makes you like, Not want to return it and keep it forever every time you steal something. And makes you more likely to lie about everything

For a 6-year-old first time offender, you make them apologize to whoever they stole from and leave it at that. If they do it again you start to introduce punishment in the form of denying them something they want (but don't take away things you've already given them because they will hate you). Under no circumstances do you call the freaking police to interrogate a 6-year-old kid. That's just shitty parenting and a waste of the police's time.

Wasting police time

If a store owner calls the cops on your six year old for doing the right thing by returning a $1 eraser, you're just piling on the mistakes by actually sticking around.

Bruh, anything under 15 bucks is shrinkage anyway

That's traumatising WTF

Quit a few years ago some policemen wanted to scare me when I was about 15. I am aware this is a little later than this kid. Since then I absolutley despise and mistrust every policeman I meet. It helped that in the transfer cell I was put there was another dude which they havent even searched since he had a lighter and cigs.

this was no surprise for me as an asian westerner who's seen some rather light crimes commited by innocent children and teenagers that were taken way more seriously than most of the criminal cases in the American Courts ofJustice in the western region really sick vile criminals are either given couple months and or just a few years of their prison sentencing but people like innocent individuals are still treated just about in the same way police treat criminals. I understand people wish to prevent individuals from becoming criminals and or wish to ensure crimes don't happen but yes typically interrogating children and taking their mug shots and putting them in cuffs in a jail bar as something that has happened in both the asian and western side of the world it's way more common than people think it is. Generally there's been times when children who commited related crimes like taking one certain item not knowing better were called on and multiple officers would question the child and for me personally as someone who had seen coverage of such incidents happens and it's just sad to see how actual criminals aren't taken as seriously but a person who isn't likely to commit a crime again is punished way harsher than most that is something that came as no surprise to me whatsoever and even in schools the consequences of involving police are much worse especially as of the last few years if students act up and if parents are having problems with schools internal systems were called on recently with school authority involving the federal beuraue and police station in removing parents who were just having an open discussion with the school board of their town community county. And children of the parents who were involved in a school debate were called on for investigation in the west and in Asia asian adults take very light crimes as being serious and even put children in jail for such light things and abusive authority figures sort of just abuse their power when handling kids and other things that aren't considerablly illegal activity and the police would treat it as such in that category and by then having traumatized not only the child but their parents as well. Assault and rape on a school campus accusations of students taking part in perversion and illegal substance activities were seen as being nothing but as a student I was in trouble for napping in class and people consequenced me for talking back when it came to school policies I disagreed on for trash talking authority figures I was sent to the principles office and for also wearing hoodies or hats in school I was yelled at for but students who were actively having sex with minors in my state were given a slap on the wrist but children who just disagree with rules and the powers of authority figures are generally threatened fined by our schools where I live in California. And one time when a child had taken something and returned it I witnessed police standing around the child and questioning them so basically that sort of thing escalation in consequences for non severe crimes is to be expected and for filming in public private buildings and for swearing at police in california is treated as criminal cases by the court judge and federal LAPD Los Angeles Police Department and well in any case consequences being escalated when escalation wasn't necesarry that is way too common the execessive overreaction of law enforcementt is kind of just a thing nowadays sadly Police and authority adult figures genuinely would treat innocent xhildren as if they're a possible flight risk in the future