Mina-san,

Today’s location is ハルピン・Harupin - hello to all of our listeners in Harbin, China!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Wow! すごいよ！　Which soap store did u work in? I gotta stake out that shop.

というのか、」ありがとうごさまう」は」ありがとうございます」の方がいいでしょう！
ごめん　なさい！

ミクジ

That crime which Take-san was describing is, unfortunately, all too common. In fact it has been dubbed the ‘Ore-ore sagi’ because of the frantic ‘It’s me!’ which initiates the call. There was a substantial article about it in the Wall Street journal.

Usually, after the sobbing ‘grandson’ finishes speaking, an officous man takes over the call, claiming to work for an insurance company. He offers to settle the matter quickly, and privately, for a sum of money, which is some kind of cash transfer or bank transaction.

This crime preys on two qualities in Japanese society: (1) the desire to settle matters quickly and privately, rather than exposure through the court systems; and (2) many people having large amounts of cash on hand, Japan being something of a cash society. I hate to generalise, but those are principles at work here that have made this crime relatively distinct to this country. Whereas an American’s first though would probably be litigious in nature, an older Japanese person is probably thinking about saving face for the family.

Some guy tried to pull that “Ore, ore” scam on us too. My wife answered, and the male voice on the other end identified himself as Shun, the name of our son. But almost everybody who knows him knows that he goes by his western name. So my wife answered, “Shun no dare?”, and the guy on the other end swore and hung up. We figure that they somehow came up with a school list with phone numbers.

In retrospect, we wish we had been quick-witted enough to play along with their game just long enough to gather information for the police.