Hello Kitty Ticket Scalper Arrested! Anal Retentive Police Completely Out of Hand

Here we go again. Just after I complained about the Japanese police for busting a bar in Roppongi for allowing, of all things, dancing after midnight, now the cops have gone off and have arrested a guy for selling tickets to Sanrio Puroland (Hello Kitty Fun Park). 

This just pisses me off to no end that the cops waste our tax money with idiocy like this. Don't they have any real criminals to chase?


Once again, the Super-publication of truth, justice and the Japanese way, the Tokyo Reporter has the story:

Yamaguchi-gumi gangster arrested for scalping Hello Kitty fun park tickets

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Kao Iwata, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal organization, for attempting to resell complimentary tickets to the Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tokyo’s Tama City, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 6).

Here we go again with the "Yakuza crackdown on ticket sellers." And, once agin, my complaints of "Don't we have other, more important problems to deal with?"

At approximately 11:10 a.m. on Sunday, an undercover officer from the TMD heard the 46-year-old suspect soliciting customers for tickets to enter the park, which offers attractions and rides featuring popular characters from the Sanrio brand, such as Hello Kitty.

Oh! He went "Undercover"!? Wow! (cue: Mission Impossible music) 

Iwata was attempting to sell individual tickets for 2,500 yen each. He was arrested for violating anti-nuisance ordinances.

What nuisance? If it's a family of three, he tried to save them about $60! I would have bought them!

According to the Community Safety Department of the TMD, Iwata had 12 complimentary tickets in his possession. “I received the tickets from an acquaintance,” the suspect is quoted by police. “I have no income, and I thought this would be a way to support myself.”

How in the world does selling tickets to Hello Kitty World involve "Community Safety?" The guy didn't have a job. He had no income. Hell, for all we know he has a kid... You do what you have to do, right?

Here's the story on the Japanese evening news no less!

I've stated it before that the police are obstructing business. Jeez! Confirmed by  the news story this desperado had a grand total of 12 tickets that he was trying to pedal off for ¥2,500 each (about $32 each). 12 tickets x $32.00 comes to a whopping grand total of $384. 

Sanrio Puroland entry tickets sell for ¥4,400 each (about $56 each)... Hell, the guy hasn't a job and he's out to try to make a buck. So what? 

I'm sure the good folks at Sanrio Puroland don't like it, but I really wonder if this is worth it to us all to have to pay taxes and arrest this guy for doing what he has to do to make some cash so he can live and eat.

I wonder how much money it cost us to arrest him?

Of course, as usual, people will blast me and say that the Yakuza have to be cracked down on because of "Human Trafficking." I say, "Bullshit!" When we have a story about the police actually arresting Yaks for human trafficking, then I might not complain. But this after-hours dancing and scalping tickets as well as prostitution busts are nothing more than a waste of tax dollars.

Aressting people for victimless crimes is BS.

I say death penalty!


NOTE: Anecdotal evidence. My wife tells me that the scalper was selling free entry tickets. These tickets are passed out in huge volumes to shareholders of Sario stock at shareholder's meetings. According to her, the vast majority of people entering Sanrio Puroland on weekends enter with free tickets. Many of the people visiting on weekends get in with free tickets from the shareholders and the other huge block of people who are admitted for free get their tickets from renewing newspaper subscriptions. My wife claims that "there isn't a family in our neighborhood who hasn't gone to Sanrio Puroland for free, except us." She, nor I, have any intention of going there for free or not. If you consider that most people get in for free and this guy was trying to sell entry tickets for ¥2,500 maybe that explains why he doesn't have a job.

The Tokyo Reporter is, in my opinion, one of the best English language publications in Japan as they translate into English stories that appear in the standard Japanese weeklies. With Tokyo Reporter, you get the news that the Japanese people get and not some twisted (and often confused) foreign outlook.