Hello. I'm Mike, a lawyer living in Hong Kong.
I've been writing about the financial city of Tokyo for a long time, but I wanted to write something outside of that, so I gave it this title. Some of my friends have told me that they agree with me and encouraged me to write more about the Financial City series.
So, what is it about the former prosecutor Kurokawa who was recently fined for summary prosecution? I was seriously prepared for the collapse of criminal justice and the plunge into the dark state when the retirement age of Mr. Kurokawa was suddenly extended by the unreasonable reason of the change of interpretation of the law and the oral settlement, and the amendment of the law that the retirement age of the prosecutor can be extended freely at the discretion of the Cabinet Office was about to pass. I was relieved, if nothing else, to see him resign for betting on mahjong. When this case came to light, there were various accusations and protests, such as that the public prosecutor's office had endorsed tenpin betting mahjong as legal, while manga artist Hiruko and professional baseball player Higashio were arrested, but I think this is not the case.
Mr. Kurokawa is a bit older than me and our school days overlap (although we don't know each other). At that time, mahjong was in its heyday among university students and there were many mahjong parlours around the university. I used to go to the university to look for mahjong players, and I used to go to the mahjong parlours to play betting mahjong. I used to go to the mahjong parlours and play for money, although it was always Ten Ichi and Ten San. Other students were playing too, but we had no idea that it was illegal. One of them might have been Mr. Kurokawa.
First of all, let me say that betting on mahjong is illegal. That's the main rule. When I was a student 40 years ago (!) When I was a student, 40 years ago (!), there was and still is a gambling law, so any student who played mahjong is a criminal. But I don't hear of anyone being arrested. That's what the world is all about, formality and reality.
It's a bit off topic, but there is a Road Traffic Act, isn't there? I've paid a few fines for speeding and parking. I've also been suspended twice. It's a very interesting system that is unique to the Road Traffic Act. It was made in 1960 when it was said that it was no longer after the war. At that time, cars were becoming more and more popular and traffic accidents were becoming a serious problem, so as a countermeasure, speeding and parking violations were all punishable by fines. However, with the rapid spread of cars, the number of arrests for violating the Road Traffic Act increased rapidly. Unlike thieves, the police caught these offenders in traffic stops, so it was impossible to let them off the hook, and they were all brought up on criminal charges. In those days, the big people were in a panic. If we don't do something, the whole country will become ex-convicts!
This was a problem, so we created a system of non-criminal administrative penalties, so that arrests for speeding would not result in a criminal record. This allowed us to crack down on speeding without having to worry about getting a criminal record. It was a systemic solution to the problem of formal application of the law.
Back to the crime of gambling. If it were applied properly, all university students and mahjong-loving uncles of the Showa era would be ex-convicts. Since there is no penalty for gambling, there is a tacit agreement not to arrest good mahjong-loving uncles in order to avoid the situation where all Showa-era uncles are ex-convicts.
The technical term for this understanding is "punishable illegality", which means that although it is formally a crime, it is not a crime because it does not warrant criminal punishment. If a student or an uncle is playing with his friends at a low rate, we don't bother and we don't arrest them.
When I was an apprentice, I sometimes played mahjong. When I was a prosecutor's trainee, my supervisor was also a mahjong enthusiast, and a group of fellow trainees gathered around the table at the prosecutor's home. I asked the prosecutor if it was OK to bet on mahjong, and he replied clearly, "Yes, up to ten pin. He replied clearly. There is an unwritten prosecutor's rule about the betting rate in mahjong. This is in line with Kurokawa's statement.
It's not as if anything is okay as long as it's ten pints. The reason why gambling is a crime in the first place is that it spreads the tendency to live a lazy and wasteful life, and also induces crimes such as extortion and robbery. The reason why gambling is a crime is because gambling can lead to a lazy and wasteful lifestyle, and can also lead to crimes such as extortion and robbery. It is true that when I was a student, I played mahjong and lived a lazy life, but it was my own problem and I didn't have any negative impact on the public, and it was far from wasteful, so it was overlooked. If the rate is low, if there is a gang involved, or if you gamble in a way that affects the public, you will be arrested.
When Mr. Kurokawa's betting mahjong was scooped up and the prosecutor's office did not arrest or prosecute him because the tenpin was minor, the public protested. The media, which knew nothing about the matter, all argued that it was a crime and should be arrested. But wait a minute. That's not right. Mr. Kurokawa was doing it with the tacit understanding of tenpin, and he was doing it with his friends in the private place of the reporter's flat, so he cannot be blamed in any way.
Mr Kurokawa is safe. Especially if you consider the equality of the other cases. If anyone is to blame, it is the fact that a man who is in the middle of a lot of other problems was sitting around a table with a newspaper reporter, not the fact that he made a bet.
After this scoop, some people took the trouble to start playing mahjong on the street in front of the public prosecutor's office, saying that they had received an endorsement that tenpin was legal. There was also a report that he was unequal compared to Mr. Higashio and Ms. Hiruko, who used to play mahjong at the same rate, but it seems that Mr. Higashio had a gang member among the members who were sitting around the table with him, and Ms. Hiruko's mahjong parlor was a source of funds for a gang. It is no wonder that he was arrested.
In the end, the original policy seems to have been changed to a summary prosecution with a fine (and a conviction), but the prosecutor's office must be wondering whether to change the unwritten rules on betting mahjong in the future. This is troubling.
See you next time.
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