Japanese artist arrested for knife possession.

[Bayoublaster]

I don't know if this is the right place for this article but here it is.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060907p2a00m0et013000c.html

Death Note Creator Arrested for Possessing a Knife (2006-09-07 10:00:42)
Death Note and Hikaru no Go creator Takeshi Obata was arrested yesterday for illegal possession of an 8.6 cm (3.4 inches) knife, according to Tokyo police. He was originally pulled over for driving his car with the headlights off at 1 a.m., and reportedly said he keeps the knife in the car for when he goes camping. Thanks, Masako Ollivier and Hillary Mader.

From http://animenewsnetwork.com/

That's what was listed on Anime News Network's site.

Here's the other link from the article. It's in Japanese so it probably won't be much help. The Babelfish translation of it was horrible.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20060907i407.htm?from=main4

 

[puukkoman]

Hm... Might be interesting to know what type of knife it was, and what the laws are in Japan (or even in that particular locality).
If he was driving with his headlights off at 1 in the morning, what was the reason? Was he drunk? Acting suspicious? Here in the states, if you're acting suspicious, an otherwise legal knife can become instantly "illegal," based on the arresting officer's interpretation of your "intent" (meaning that you can be arrested for ANY reason... cop's bad mood, racial profiling, whatever). Cool, huh? :jerkit:
Either way, I'd like to know more about the circumstances before making any assessment of the situation. Maybe it was a legitimate arrest... Maybe I need to feel that it was yet another abuse of power... Who knows???