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Manga Artist Mikito Tsurugi Recounts Police Questioning While Riding Shinkansen

posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Police thought Tsurugi had kidnapped his own 2-year-old daughter

Manga artist and musician Mikito Tsurugi (Kōkōsei no Blues) recounted an incident via the Twitter note app on August 18 where he was reported as a kidnapper while riding the bullet train with his own daughter. Tsurugi wrote that he was scolding his daughter and that someone grew suspicious and he was interrogated by the police.

The J-Cast News service interviewed Tsurugi about the incident on August 19 where he shared more details. Tsurugi boarded the Asama shinkansen around 6:00 p.m. on August 18 with his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The inside of the train gradually became more crowded with rush hour commuters. His tired daughter became bothered by the crowd and started crying and throwing a tantrum. According to Tsurugi, the passengers on the train complained and angrily asked him to take his "noisy" daughter to the deck of the train.

Tsurugi took is daughter there but was confronted by a police officer that boarded and asked to question Tsurugi in detail at the Ueno station. The police officer was under the impression that Tsurugi may have kidnapped is daughter. He showed the officer his ID card and insurance card and also called his wife in hopes of clearing up his identity. Tsurugi stated that the officer seemed seriously concerned, was making comments into his radio, and questioned why the child wasn't with her mother.

The questioning delayed the train by about five minutes. Tsurugi said some of the confusion may have stemmed from his daughter making the "irresponsible" comment "Papa chigau!" (Daddy is different!).

Tsurugi said he doesn't blame the person who reported the situation or the police for taking their job seriously, even if the reporter did it to harass him. He's ridden the train with his daughter many times and noted that the situation likely wouldn't have happened if he was a woman.

"The police seem to be suspicious of a man and a girl alone...there may be a gap between what the public expects to see and male caregivers for children," Tsurugi said. "I had a lot of discoveries [from that incident]."

Voice actor Fukushi Ochiai (Moguzo from Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions, Andō Morinari from Ninja Girl & Samurai Master) recounted a similar experience with police in June. Ochiai wrote on social media that policeman once questioned him when he was in a park playing with his eldest daughter and asked for proof that he was her father.

Ochiai speculated that the person who reported him to the police was probably someone from the mother's group surrounding him from a distance. He tweeted: "It was absolutely depressing."

Source: J-Cast News


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