Also has a special request regarding his lawyer.
Early on the morning of August 27, a 33-year-old woman was buying a drink from a vending machine on the platform of Hanshin Amagasaki Station in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. While she was focused on selecting and retrieving her beverage, though, a 47-year-old man who was walking past her touched her buttocks.
He then ran out of the station, but the woman, along with a station employee, gave chase and cornered him in a nearby park, where he reportedly admitted to groping the victim. The police were summoned, but once the officer arrived on scene to take the man into custody, he became less talkative. When asked for his name and occupation (a standard part of on-site police questioning in Japan), he gave no response at all.
That’s sort of unusual. Unlike in the U.S., where countless cop shows and crime movies constantly remind citizens of their right to remain silent, in Japan that’s usually not something that instantly springs to people’s minds when speaking with the police. The officer pressed on, though, and he asked the man why he’d done what he had on the platform, when finally the man spoke, saying:
“I love women from my very core. I will only talk to a woman.”
So no, it wasn’t that the groper thought that keeping his mouth shut was his best way to avoid getting himself into even more trouble. He was just totally opposed to the idea of talking to a police officer who was also a dude.
Of course, you don’t have to say anything to get arrested and hauled down to the station, and the male officer had no problem doing both. As per Japanese law, the groper is entitled to a public defender to provide him with legal counsel, and, sure enough, he’s requested that his lawyer be a woman, though it remains to be seen if he’ll get his wish, or if any female attorney would be willing to take his case.
Source: Kobe Shimbun Next via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Wikipedia/計記録
Insert images: Pakutaso
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