5 ms·

>The move comes on the heels of a series of online threats via remotely hijacked computers using the Tor system, which allows users to mask their online identit

>The move comes on the heels of a series of online threats via remotely hijacked computers using the Tor system, which allows users to mask their online identities and locations by routing connections through several servers. There's been an investigation/questioning going on regarding one particular incident for many months now, where a guy had used Tor (among other things) to hijack others' computers and send crime threats from these machines. The Japanese police, being pretty inexperienced at this sort of thing, arrested the wrong person back in late 2012 (which btw ruined that poor guy's life, because the Japanese press has this retarded tendency to report suspects' real names, addresses, occupation, even when the status is preliminary), and it's been a series of embarrassments for them ever since. They even have the prime suspect in custody, yet they can't find concrete evidence to lock him up. (in fact, they're doing some pretty shady stuff by keeping him in custody for an inordinately long time through various loop-holey means). The whole debacle has shown both the technology ineptitude of Japan's police department as well as its heavyhandedness. Old article, but you'll get the gist of the situation. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/07/japan-cat-collar-hacker-clue http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/07/japan-cat-col... Then there is an article in February saying he was "caught", but two months later, he is still stuck in custody as police try in vain to find conclusive evidence that can lock him up. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/12/japanese-cat-hacker-caught http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/12/japanese-cat-...

kiyoto 14y ago
I came here to comment and guess who I saw lol I think this is such a boneheaded move. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed when it comes to Internet policy?
- quanticle 14y ago
  It's because Japanese society is backwards and unreformed when it comes to its dealings with the Internet. [1] 1. http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/ http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/
  - D9u 14y ago
    Sort of like the USA. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstrac...
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      No, not at all like the USA. Japan is at least 10 years behind when it comes to the internet. It's a completely different situation. You have to experience it to understand it. The Japanese simply haven't grokked the idea of moving large aspects of their lives online, or even why they should bother to try to understand the internet.
      - sukuriant 14y ago
        And yet they make shows like Eden of the East which contains a system with that namesake that's basically Facebook meets Metafilter meets Google
        hkmurakami 14y ago
        imo Japanese subculture citizens (especially those who really live and breathe it) are much farther away from the "mainstream" culture and society than their counterparts in the West. It is more 'normal' to be 'not normal' over here.
      - mattm 14y ago
        And yet I have gigabit internet here.
        w1ntermute 14y ago
        I don't mean their internet infrastructure, I mean their actual utilization of the internet.
      - ddellacosta 14y ago
        w1ntermute, I have to disagree with you here. If we are going to generalize, the Japanese are most definitely clued-in to the Internet. They may not use Facebook as much, but they have one of the highest usages of Twitter in the world (a little old, but here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_b26726 http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_... and here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/), and they use the Internet for a lot of things like making purchases, finding product/store/restaurant/etc. reviews, auctions, etc. And, despite the relatively lower numbers, tons of Japanese are on Facebook (although, this article describes how teenagers are more into Instagram and other photo-sharing services, moreso than FB, which makes sense consider Japan's history of photo sharing via feature-phones...but I digress: http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/ http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/). AND, let us not forget venerable old 2chan, the inspiration for 4chan(!). To say that they are ten years behind I think is pretty much not the case. Which all just goes to say that it is even more of a shame that the government doesn't have a clue about this shit. Now, if you are talking about building an environment to create new web businesses, or adopting new software development techniques, then maybe they are behind...but not ten years (and most everyone is behind the U.S. on this as far as I've seen). -A guy who works at a Japanese internet company in Tokyo
- Pitarou 14y ago
  > Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed about Internet policy? Take a step back. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed?
jpbuff 14y ago
OK, this needs context. Japan has an insanely hight conviction rate in pretty much all crimes. What happens is this: police find someone who is plausibly guilty (very low threshold and lots of bias) and keep them in custody for a long time (sometimes months) until they finally confess. Case solved. So what you have just described is just business as usual for Japan.
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  Yes and that behavior resulted in the wrongfully convicted guy (back in 2012) "confessing" that he's the one who sent the crime threats, even though he was innocent. (I forgot about this part in my original post, for thanks for being the impetus for making me remember :P)
  - jpbuff 14y ago
    It seems very plausible. Most crimes in Japan have conviction rates of well over 90% for the reasons I wrote so I would be very surprised if this case was any different.
- chris_mahan 14y ago
  This reminds me of the scene in Shogun (Richard Chamberlain, 1980, etc. Doesn't ring a bell? Do yourself a favor and read the book/watch the film.) where he's in jail and the Spanish Friar tells him: "in Japan, all crimes have only one penalty: Death!" As an aside, my wife is Japanese (born and raised there) and in her mind, once the police or the authorities say something, it's God's Truth. It doesn't help that in Japan, the Emperor is believed to be descended from the Gods. I'm breaking her of that concept, because, let's face it, man is fallible, but it's been an interesting struggle.
- Pitarou 14y ago
  And it gets worse. At first, the Japanese police "interrogated" four of the people whose computers had been hijacked. THREE OF THEM CONFESSED. The only reason they're not behind bars now is because: 1. Even the Japanese police noticed that there was something wrong with the case. It didn't make sense that these four people were co-operating. 2. The fourth guy was savvy enough to figure out what had happened, and explain it to the police. This kind of crap goes on all the time here. Japan is what is known as a "soft police state". The flip-side is, the police are so dependent on the confession to secure a conviction that, and so inept at other forms of investigation, that if you have the means to resist the pressure to confess, you walk free. That's part of how the yakuza (criminal gangs) survive in this highly regulated society.

kiyoto 14y ago

I came here to comment and guess who I saw lol I think this is such a boneheaded move. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed when it comes to Internet policy?

quanticle 14y ago
It's because Japanese society is backwards and unreformed when it comes to its dealings with the Internet. [1] 1. http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/ http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/
- D9u 14y ago
  Sort of like the USA. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20312/abstrac...
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    No, not at all like the USA. Japan is at least 10 years behind when it comes to the internet. It's a completely different situation. You have to experience it to understand it. The Japanese simply haven't grokked the idea of moving large aspects of their lives online, or even why they should bother to try to understand the internet.
    - sukuriant 14y ago
      And yet they make shows like Eden of the East which contains a system with that namesake that's basically Facebook meets Metafilter meets Google
      - hkmurakami 14y ago
        imo Japanese subculture citizens (especially those who really live and breathe it) are much farther away from the "mainstream" culture and society than their counterparts in the West. It is more 'normal' to be 'not normal' over here.
    - mattm 14y ago
      And yet I have gigabit internet here.
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        I don't mean their internet infrastructure, I mean their actual utilization of the internet.
    - ddellacosta 14y ago
      w1ntermute, I have to disagree with you here. If we are going to generalize, the Japanese are most definitely clued-in to the Internet. They may not use Facebook as much, but they have one of the highest usages of Twitter in the world (a little old, but here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_b26726 http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-top-countries_... and here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/09/huge-in-japan-twitter/), and they use the Internet for a lot of things like making purchases, finding product/store/restaurant/etc. reviews, auctions, etc. And, despite the relatively lower numbers, tons of Japanese are on Facebook (although, this article describes how teenagers are more into Instagram and other photo-sharing services, moreso than FB, which makes sense consider Japan's history of photo sharing via feature-phones...but I digress: http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/ http://japan.cnet.com/news/commentary/35029092/). AND, let us not forget venerable old 2chan, the inspiration for 4chan(!). To say that they are ten years behind I think is pretty much not the case. Which all just goes to say that it is even more of a shame that the government doesn't have a clue about this shit. Now, if you are talking about building an environment to create new web businesses, or adopting new software development techniques, then maybe they are behind...but not ten years (and most everyone is behind the U.S. on this as far as I've seen). -A guy who works at a Japanese internet company in Tokyo
Pitarou 14y ago
> Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed about Internet policy? Take a step back. Why is the Japanese government so anachronistic and unreformed?

jpbuff 14y ago

OK, this needs context. Japan has an insanely hight conviction rate in pretty much all crimes. What happens is this: police find someone who is plausibly guilty (very low threshold and lots of bias) and keep them in custody for a long time (sometimes months) until they finally confess. Case solved. So what you have just described is just business as usual for Japan.

hkmurakami 14y ago
Yes and that behavior resulted in the wrongfully convicted guy (back in 2012) "confessing" that he's the one who sent the crime threats, even though he was innocent. (I forgot about this part in my original post, for thanks for being the impetus for making me remember :P)
- jpbuff 14y ago
  It seems very plausible. Most crimes in Japan have conviction rates of well over 90% for the reasons I wrote so I would be very surprised if this case was any different.
chris_mahan 14y ago
This reminds me of the scene in Shogun (Richard Chamberlain, 1980, etc. Doesn't ring a bell? Do yourself a favor and read the book/watch the film.) where he's in jail and the Spanish Friar tells him: "in Japan, all crimes have only one penalty: Death!" As an aside, my wife is Japanese (born and raised there) and in her mind, once the police or the authorities say something, it's God's Truth. It doesn't help that in Japan, the Emperor is believed to be descended from the Gods. I'm breaking her of that concept, because, let's face it, man is fallible, but it's been an interesting struggle.
Pitarou 14y ago
And it gets worse. At first, the Japanese police "interrogated" four of the people whose computers had been hijacked. THREE OF THEM CONFESSED. The only reason they're not behind bars now is because: 1. Even the Japanese police noticed that there was something wrong with the case. It didn't make sense that these four people were co-operating. 2. The fourth guy was savvy enough to figure out what had happened, and explain it to the police. This kind of crap goes on all the time here. Japan is what is known as a "soft police state". The flip-side is, the police are so dependent on the confession to secure a conviction that, and so inept at other forms of investigation, that if you have the means to resist the pressure to confess, you walk free. That's part of how the yakuza (criminal gangs) survive in this highly regulated society.