Saturday, January 4, 2003

The Crack Down Last year in Japan the fine for drinking and driving law was increased. On the top of that the police are really cracking down, so any time you get drinkers together this is one of the popular topics of conversation. Some of the stories I have heard a little hard to believe. One story going around is about the four guys in a car leaving a golf course and they were stopped. All four of them were fined 300,000 yen, another one is about a group of eight farmers who were playing it safe and had a van and designated driver. Well, the driver drank and all eight were fined. There was another group of golfers who were stopped. Of course, they were fined, but the company that sponsored the tournament they had played in was also fined. The most recent one I heard is about a farmers group that had a party in December and 30 people were stopped and arrested. These are just some of them and I am not sure if these are being reported in the press or it is one of those "a friend of a friend told me", type of things. If these stories are true I wonder if the police are getting to keep all the money from the fines or does it go into the general budget. This may be one way for them to make up for any budget cuts. 11:45:53 AM

© Copyright 2003 David Campbell. Last update: 2/1/03; 1:12:48 PM.