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The story
Early one morning, OP noticed someone photographing their house and called out to them. The person identified himself as “a prefectural employee” and showed a name tag. Without asking for further details, OP called the police — and was told by the officer, “This could’ve counted as obstruction of official duties,” before being let off with just a stern warning. It seems the visit was part of an investigation into a house built somewhere houses aren’t supposed to be built, but OP never found out exactly how it could have amounted to obstruction. The post sparked discussion on 5ch mainly around two questions: whether simply calling the police can legally count as obstruction of official duties, and whether the presence of an official seal on a name tag is really a reliable way to verify someone’s identity.
What people said
There was a sketchy-looking dorky guy (lit. "cheese-gyudon guy," 5ch slang for a nerdy, plain-looking young man) taking photos of my house.
When I called out to him, he said "I'm a prefectural employee" and showed me his name tag.
Apparently he came to investigate because there's a house built somewhere houses aren't supposed to be built — but what the heck does that even mean?
I didn't ask that much.
What exactly made it count as obstruction of official duties?
No idea.
If I'd been satisfied with the explanation, I wouldn't have bothered making a thread to complain about it.
Sorry about that.
You guys are the ones in the wrong here.
Seriously, reflect on that.
You're the one who should be reflecting — you're the one stuck with all the prejudice.
Morning traffic surveys can only be done in the morning.
Sorry about that.
It's not that you don't know — the police told you that themselves, right?
It shouldn't count as obstruction unless OP actually did something to interfere.
They basically told me, "This could've counted as obstruction of official duties. We'll let you off with a stern warning this time, but be careful next time." But I never asked exactly what part would've counted as obstruction.
So you wouldn't call the police even if there was a burglar? Woooow! So cooool!
Just calling the police and holding up a prefectural employee's work for a bit wouldn't count as obstruction of official duties.
He probably did something else once the police showed up.
Guys like this usually leave out the inconvenient part.
• The target has to be a "public official"
• They have to be "in the course of performing their duties"
• There has to be an act of "assault or intimidation"
Did he actually commit assault or intimidation?
He showed his name tag and OP still called the police anyway, so it's only fair.
These days there are even scammers who flash fake police badges, so just being suspicious and calling the police shouldn't count as obstructing official duties.
I bet there's something else he's leaving out.
Just calling the police wouldn't be enough to cause that.
Even the police themselves, when they go door-to-door for some investigation, have exchanges like "I can't tell if you're the real deal, I'll just check to be safe" — "Sure, go right ahead, great that you're security-conscious," so it's basically like that.
If OP genuinely, sincerely believed the guy was suspicious, I wonder how that plays into the relationship between a citizen's arrest and obstruction of official duties.
Seems like it would lack the criminal intent needed for obstruction.
Well, you could still get arrested regardless.
That kind of interpretation is something you'd argue out in court anyway.
Re: #52
Sorry, that was a weird reply.
Real name tags have an official seal on them.
There's no way just anyone could make one.
Maybe pick up some common sense before worrying about studying.
Normal people don't know that and have no way to tell the difference 😅
My city's doesn't have one.
And it only has the surname on it — just the city name, not even the department.
That's been the case since last year as a measure against customer harassment.
So my city office was the odd one out for not stamping an official seal on the name tag?
For the record, I do carry a separate employee ID too.
You mean the ID card, not the name tag?
The name tag gets the official seal stamped on it too.
Losing it is a normal "write up a formal incident report" offense.
I'm a city employee too, and mine isn't stamped.
Even if an officer shows up and checks with the police, that's just a records lookup — it's not like the police would actually come out for that.
The police are "in-house," so it's just handled over the phone — whether they physically show up or not doesn't make much of a difference.
Normal people do know an official seal exists.
You're just not normal.
I've never once been in a situation where I had to check a public official's name tag. Did you do something wrong to end up in one?
If there's a separate employee ID, the seal would be stamped on that instead, right?
What about national government employees whose ID is their My Number card?
Every administrative-track national civil servant uses a My Number card.
Work starts at 8:30 and yet you've got plenty of time to spare, huh.
Depends on the department, but the easy-going ones really are easy-going.
No morning meeting for me today either.
Get back to work, government worker.
My hours are 9:00 to 17:45.
Background and key points of this discussion
The crime of obstructing the performance of official duties (Article 95 of the Penal Code) is established when “assault or intimidation” is used against a public official in the course of their duties — simply calling the police to request identity verification would not normally meet that bar. Several commenters in the thread pointed this out, suggesting that the officer’s warning to OP to “be careful next time” may imply OP did something further even after the employee showed his name tag. Meanwhile, whether an official ID carries an official seal varies by municipality and by the type of credential (name tag vs. employee ID), and the thread’s own anecdotes were split between “mine has one” and “mine doesn’t.” This isn’t a nationwide standard — some municipalities have simplified their name tags as a measure against customer harassment — so judging the reliability of an identity check based solely on whether an official seal is present would be premature.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “I got a stern warning for obstruction of official duties.”
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