A public restroom stall shock that had nothing to do with cleanliness.

Whether you’re looking for a Pokémon frappe, chocolate chip sandwich, or surprisingly high-quality T-shirt, Japan’s convenience stores have got you covered. As a matter of fact, it can start to become easy to become desensitized to the very wide variety of things you can find in a Japanese convenience store, but earlier this month a customer at one in the town of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture came across something that still managed to shock him, as the late-night shopper found a gun inside the shop.

Firearm ownership is heavily regulated in Japan, however, so the gun wasn’t something the store was selling, and it wasn’t out on the shelves between the boxes of Pocky and packs of melon bread either. Instead, the customer, who was at the store at around 12:35 a.m. on June 3, found the gun in the store’s bathroom. After he stepped into a stall, he noticed a belt hanging from a hook ordinarily meant for bags or coats. Attached to the belt was a holster, and inside the holster was a pistol.

We’ve often discussed how life in Japan isn’t like anime, but reality here is also very different from video games, and you generally won’t find weapons just lying about in real-life Japan like it’s an RPG. An odd exception, though, is bathrooms, which periodically turn into unintended armories when police officers use them and forget to take their guns with them once they’re done doing their bathroom business. That’s what happened in this case as well, with the firearm being traced back to a police officer with the Yamaguchi Prefectural Police who was on duty that night and had stopped by the convenience store roughly 40 minutes before the customer found his gun.

The customer informed the store staff about the forgotten weapon, and the store then contacted the policer to report its discovery. The officer has admitted to accidentally leaving his weapon behind, and the Yamaguchi police have pledged to reassert to all officers the importance of making sure they haven’t left their gun behind and unaccounted for when moving from one location to another.

In addition to convenience stores, in recent years there have also been incidents of officers accidentally leaving weapons behind at a restroom in an airport and even one within a police station.

Until recently, most police departments prohibited officers from making use of convenience stores while on duty and in uniform. With such regulations being eased, though, the frequency with which police firearms are brought into stores will likely continue to increase, so hopefully officers will remember to take them back out too.

Source: TBS News Dig via Yahoo! Japan News via Kinisoku
Top image: Pakutaso
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KOTA BHARU, June 15 — Kelantan police have called in more than 10 courier service companies operating in the state to share information on the latest modus operandi employed by drug syndicates, which have been found using parcel delivery channels to facilitate their activities.

Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat said the initiative was intended to heighten vigilance among courier companies and their employees after numerous drug cases were found to involve courier services.

He said courier firms had been asked to keep records of senders’ particulars, including details of their identity cards and phone numbers, to aid investigations should any offences arise.

"We have urged them to remain alert, and where a parcel raises suspicion, customers may be asked to open it before courier personnel for an initial check," he said after the Kelantan Police Contingent Headquarters monthly gathering here today.

Mohd Yusoff said courier companies had been informed of a new trend involving “drop-off” deliveries, in which parcels are registered online and left at designated collection points without direct contact between senders and staff.

According to him, the method complicates efforts to identify senders because fewer details are recorded compared with over-the-counter transactions.

Mohd Yusoff said there was no evidence to suggest that any courier company had been involved in drug smuggling, although some employees had been questioned in connection with ongoing investigations.

He also urged courier firms to consider using scanning devices in the future to help identify suspicious items in parcels and enhance delivery security measures. — Bernama

BELFAST, June 10 — Anti-immigration protesters torched buildings and vehicles in Belfast on yesterday evening and blocked roads, a day after a stabbing allegedly by a Sudanese refugee, captured in a graphic video that shocked the country.

Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, AFP journalists saw. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building fringing the city centre caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated.

“By 7.30 pm  they started (a) fire in the bins...we heard police cars and sirens,” said one resident, Eemran, an engineer of Indian origin who has been living in Belfast for slightly over a year.

“More and more people started coming, they started throwing petrol bombs. Suddenly the fire started going...we had smoke inside the building...fire people came in and they said ‘go down’,” he said in broken English.

Camila, a 36-year-old Chilean who moved to Belfast a month ago, said it was “scary”.

“Of course I’m not used to it,” she said. “I understand the people’s rage but also there are ways of discussing these things more peacefully”.

Sky television showed other buildings on fire.

Police helicopters patrolled above the city and shops were also closed early.

Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, slammed the protests and urged calm.

“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said on X.

“Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm”.

Crowds also gathered in Antrim, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Belfast.

US tech billionaire Elon Musk had earlier retweeted a post by anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon—also known as Tommy Robinson—adding: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!”.

The suspect in the knife attack, whose name has not been released, was charged late Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. The 30-year-old man is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

As anti-immigration figures, including Reform party leader Nigel Farage and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, demanded details about the attacker, the interior ministry confirmed he was a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028.

Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher said he had arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin.

Living in fear

Tensions were already high in Britain after violent skirmishes last week in Southampton, southern England, over the police handling of the murder of a young white student stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.

Yesterday, dozens of demonstrators also gathered there outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying banners reading “no racism, just patriotism” and “enough is enough”.

The video from Belfast shows a man straddling another man lying in a street and slashing him several times in the head and neck with a knife, in what far-right figures claimed was an attempted beheading.

Several people can then be seen intervening, one wielding a hurling stick, and tackling the perpetrator as police arrive.

The victim, a man in his 40s, “was taken to hospital with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wound injuries to his back and face,” he told reporters.

Officers recovered what is believed to be a kitchen knife at the scene, Henderson confirmed.

A 31-year-old mother-of-one who lives nearby said the incident had terrified the neighbourhood. “We’re just living in fear now,” she told AFP.

Sickening

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “horrific” and “sickening” on X.

The leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the incident, saying “there is no place in our society for this kind of brutality”.

The leaders and police urged people not to share the video, noting its “graphic nature would only serve to retraumatise those involved”.

But numerous social media accounts linked to so-called “patriots” were sharing the footage, urging people to “protest against mass immigration into their communities”.

The UK interior ministry confirmed the Sudanese suspect entered the country in 2023 and acquired refugee status the same year, allowing him to remain until 2028.

“There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases, and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland,” police chief Boutcher said.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Britain, and helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party in the polls. — AFP

Met seizes far-right activist’s phones after he disembarks flight at Heathrow under counter-terrorism provisions

British police say they stopped the far-right activist Tommy Robinson and seized his phones as he returned from a trip to Russia.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, met Elon Musk’s father in Moscow during his trip.

PARIS, June 1 — France said today that nearly 900 people had been arrested in riots that broke out after Paris Saint-Germain club won the coveted Champions League for a second consecutive year over the weekend.

“We’ve had more than 890 arrests. In total, that’s 45 per cent more than last year,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster France Inter, adding that nearly 180 law enforcement officers had been injured.

Celebrations were blighted by clashes between youths and police in Paris and other cities, cars set on fire and shops looted.

Yesterday evening, President Emmanuel Macron received the team at the Elysee Palace. While he said PSG were an “immense pride” for France, he denounced the “unspeakable” violence.

“Enough. We are fed up,” he said.

“This is not football, this is not sport, this is not what we love,” he added.

One man died riding his motorbike around the Paris ring road in celebration while authorities reported stabbings and other attacks. — AFP