The Thai Embassy in Japan publicized a story of a Thai woman caught shoplifting in Japan to warn the citizens to be aware of Japan’s culture of law enforcement.
The story concerns a woman – name withheld – caught shoplifting a few thousand baht in merchandise from a Japanese theme park who was surprised when she was taken into custody and charged with a crime instead of being fined and released.
The Thai Embassy in Tokyo explained it cannot intervene in criminal matter and issued a helpful cartoon using familiar bunny and bear iconography to warn travelers to Japan of the seriousness of breaking the law. We won’t need language anymore. Just bunnies and bears.
In Japan, prosecutors take around 45 days to forward a case to the court; however, this woman ended up waiting for two months and still didn’t know if and when she would be allowed to return home to Thailand.
