Firefighter arrested on suspicion of DUI

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Naha Police arrested a man who works as a firefighter at the Western Okinawa Fire Department headquarters on suspicion of DUI, Monday.

According to police, 51-year-old Hayashi Shimabukuro, a resident of Naha, was arrested on suspicion of driving a mini motorcycle under influence of alcohol in the Kumoji district of Naha City about 5:30 in the morning on Dec. 5th. A breathalyzer test showed 1.2 times the limit of alcohol in Shimabukuro’s breath.

Shimabukuro admitted having had a few beers the night before, but said “I thought it was gone already.”

The Western Okinawa Fire Department headquarters issued a statement saying, “We deeply apologize for this incident. The fire department is an organization dedicated to saving citizens’ lives, but this incident detracts citizens’ trust in us very much. We will try as much as possible to prevent a recurrence, and get back people’s trust.”

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Lyn

Until recently, I have always held the Japanese police in the highest regard. However, I have recently begun to question their honesty and integrity. Twice now, I have seen articles of arrests of firefighters for DUI. However, the Japanese police force is much, much larger, yet one never learns of any DUIs or other problems within their ranks. In all likelihood, they have personnel who drink and drive, but their ‘brothers’ on the force “take care of their own” and keep any offenses by these people from ever reaching the light of day.
Likewise, I never really believed any of the SOFA status personnel that were picked up for DUI when they said they hadn’t been drinking or had had only one drink or some other protestation saying that they were not under the influence of alcohol when apprehended by the Japanese police–I always sided with the Japanese police. But now, I am not so sure the Japanese police force is as upstanding and virtuous as I had heretofore believed them to be. There may, dare I say, actually be corruption in their ranks!