CCTV cameras

[2pints-mate 0]

I didn't notice this at all, but are there many surveillance cameras going on in Japanese cities?

 

There are all over the place here. They are even starting to install some that talk to you (below) if you drop litter. Now I hate seeing people drop litter, it is such a moronic thing to do it really winds me up, but I'm not sure about talking cctv cameras all over the place.

 

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CCTV cameras that tell people off for dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be installed in 20 areas across England.

 

The cameras are already in use in Middlesbrough where anyone seen misbehaving can be told via a loudspeaker to stop.

 

Local councillors say the scheme has already prevented criminal damage and cut litter levels.

 

Critics say the cameras are absurd and another example of excessive government intrusion into everyday life.

[big-will 7]

Hadn't heard about the talking ones.

I wonder why they chose Middlesborough.... particularly dirty perhaps.

 

One of the things I really notice back in the UK when I go is litter. As you said it is just such a mindless thing to do it is hard to imagine what people doing it are thinking.

[rach 1]

I'm sure there must be but I don't notice any. The UK is full of them now, and the ones on the roads - all over the place.

[YellowSnow 0]

In Japan there is virtually none even the ones in shops are fake.

 

Last year I think the were actually banned in the kabukicho because of so much protest.

 

If a camera talked to me, I would return at night with a petrol angle grinder and cut it down.

[tsondaboy 0]

not far now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

[YellowSnow 0]

I think in many ways we have passed 1984, at least there was some underground resistance, but these days people who would resist don't have the energy to do so.

[me jane 0]

I work in a huge glasses shop and they have real cameras. We have two branches and the there is a live feed from the two shops into the boss's office. It has a wall covered in mini TV screens showing the scene from each of the cameras. The past 7 days is stored on the hard drive. They always give the appropriate bits of footage to the police when stuff gets nicked.

[YellowSnow 0]

But all that "security" costs a lot more than what is stolen, and even with it people who are intendant on stealing will do so.

[scouser 4]

Does much actually get stolen me jane?

 

Coming from Liverpool and living in Japan, I'm just not used to the concept of theft.

[me jane 0]

They get about 6-10 thefts a year, with 10-30 frames being stolen at each theft. The types of frames that are stolen retail upwards of 80,000 yen each. They tend to be more scruffily/less fashionably dressed than the average customer and almost always have a backpack and bulky coat. The frames stands get very busy (kind of like standing at the bar on a Friday night) at certain times of the day, week & year.

Scouser - I think Japanese shops have to make their security less visable than in the UK for fear of scaring away the real customers. Businesses here are also quite loathed to lock everything away in display cases as customers are less likely to buy if they can't touch the products.

 

Yellowsnow - The cost of the cameras in mimimal. There is no videotape and the line cost is a few thousand a month.

They have just started to employ a plain clothes store detective working during the busy times of the day when it is difficult for staff to monitor the stands. They are retired policemen working part-time for an hourly wage. It's a new project so they don't know now if that will make a difference.

My boss is pretty good with his numbers (3rd or 4th most profitable glasses company in the country despite only having two branches and competing with those that have several hundred) and in our case the annual amount spent on security is much less than what is lost.

Even if this is not the case in the places you are thinking of when you say that the cost of security is more than what is stolen, you are simplifing it too much. It is not the cost of what is stolen that is important, it is the cost of what would be stolen without the security.

One of the reasons for the security cameras and the detectives is to prevent the store from being seen as an easy target. A lot of the frames stolen end up in other Asian countries and the theives in that business have a close network where the info on "easy" jobs is readily shared (or so I'm told).

[bobby12 0]

 Quote:

A lot of the frames stolen end up in other Asian countries...

Damn foreigners eh?

About dropping litter - this is a sign of the different values people have in UK/Japan about local community. This is one of the main things that makes Japan a better place to live (although annoying when being hassled by gomi police etc).

I dont mind the CCTV cameras etc, they just protect people like me who follow the law, and make it harder for 'The Basxxrds' who break the law, do graffiti, drop litter, mug people etc.

[boardbaka 3]

 Quote:

Originally posted by YellowSnow:
In Japan there is virtually none even the ones in shops are fake.

Last year I think the were actually banned in the kabukicho because of so much protest.

If a camera talked to me, I would return at night with a petrol angle grinder and cut it down.

Really? I reckon on the contrary-what about the footage they got of Lindsay Hawker from a cafe - then again from another venue? e.g just last night I was in The Aldgate bar in Shibuya and in the toilets there was a poster "wanted Dubliners Keg theif" and there are still images posted from a v cam. showing a bald gaijin nicking off with a full keg- on another note the thing that interested me most is that Dubliners are actually the competition to this place- and that this pub is actually trying to help them shows how much people look out for each other over here-! Hope they catch the lager lout as well!

[YellowSnow 0]

I don't know what they are going to do with a Keg, I wouldnt know the first place to buy a tap here.

I know how to make them with metal working tools (there is a tool also called a tap for making threads for nuts) but that is anotehr thing you would find it hard getting in Japan.

[soubriquet 0]

Come on. Try Joy. In Japan, there is no difficulty buying a tool to cut threads. Japan has taught the world how to bend metal.

[scouser 4]

 Quote:

10-30 frames being stolen at each theft

Interesting how they are able to do that in one go without anyone noticing. Do people not report other people if they see them grabbing stuff.... Do they get the scoundrels?

[YellowSnow 0]

soubriquet not that I am in the business of tapping stolen kegs( I am not even a huge beer drinker)

 

In Tokyo its hard to find good tools. I dislike the traditional Japanese tools and getting into any kind of wood work / metal work is prohibitively expensive here, unless you are living out the country.

 

Before I was thinking about setting up a hand made furniture 'shop' but it would initially more far too expensive.

[bobby12 0]

Raw materials are very expensive here generally. But if you are an Aussie maybe you could arrange something.

[spook 0]

the thing i don't get about CCTV is why the images are generally rubbish. whenever there's a photo or footage on a crimestoppers type show, the images are so indistinct that its practically impossible to work out who the person in question is anyway.

what's the point of having such poor quality CCTV?

 

Having had my little rant, i must say i was pretty impressed when the london tube bombers were identified using CCTV footage. the technoology they use to fiilter images of millions of people is pretty space-age. straight out of one of those ridiculous CSI-type TV shows

[YellowSnow 0]

Its crap because the fit 24 footage from several camera onto 1 standard 180 min tape that get recycled every week(i.e. they have 7 tapes) or every month.

 

The point is making people believe that they are being watched. If you put money/something valuable in an obvious place in work, where people think they are being watched they wont touch it.

[soubriquet 0]

Sorry YellowSnow, that wasn't a dig. I shipped all my tools when I came here. I've been buying tools for 40 years, so that adds up to rather a lot. This is a farming community, so there are plenty of hardware options.

[me jane 0]

They catch a few of them, either as they are already "wanted" and their faces known by the police or because they return to us and a member of staff recognises them, but mostly, even if their faces are on camera, there is no way of knowing who they are.

Generally members of the public don't want to get involved. That may be partly to do with fear of the criminals but I know a lot of it is not wanting to have to deal with all the bureaucracy being a witness to a crime involves.

 

I was pretty impressed with the way they found those London tube bombers too - even getting everyone to send in their cell phone pics and trawling through all the people in the backgrounds.

[thursday 1]

Jane,

it may or may not surprise you that the frames cost about a billionth of a dollar to make, their markup is an insider joke. They are just having a gigantic laugh.

[me jane 0]

Yeah you are right, Thursday. I don't know exactly how much they cost to make, but where the factory workers are earning the equivalent of 7000 yen a month it can't be much! I know how much my company buys them for but the loss to the company is still what they could have earned if they'd been able to sell them, rather than had them nicked.

The main suppliers at my place are in China but they also buy frames from Italy & Japan. Needless to say the ones made in Japan cost a bit more.

It's not usually the Chinese frames that are stolen. These thieves know what they are doing!