On the way to the gym for training, he was talking on a cell phone while driving a car.
A Tokyo Metropolitan police officer from Ogu station noticed it and ordered him to pull over but instead of doing what you are supposed to do as a model citizen, Kazuo Misaki decided to just ignore him and drove away.
This was back on March 19th, and about two months later Misaki received a summons. Therefore on May 18th, Misaki went to the Ogu station just like any other good citizen should have done, but there he was notified that when he drove away the side mirror of his car had struck the police officer’s left wrist. Misaki was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice.
Misaki was released on June 4th and at the first trial held at the Tokyo District Court on June 25th he pleads guilty.
Misaki could potentially face up to one year of a jail term but for now he was handed a three-year suspended sentence by the judge Iwao Maeda.
This type of verdict is very common in the Japanese legal system and it means Misaki doesn’t have to be behind bars but must make a routine visit to the probation officer for next three years.
Now the first question everyone have must be asking, is it common for drivers in Tokyo to ignore the orders from a police officer?
In fact I have witnessed more than a few times, in the streets of Tokyo, where a car was ordered to pull over by police officers but the driver ignored them and took off from the scene.
And more surprisingly I have never seen these police officers actually chasing after these vehicles.
I’ve seen officers run a few yards on foot but it seems like, the common procedure here is, unless there is traffic that would prevent this runaway car from going any further most of the time officers basically give up pretty quickly and just note the numbers on the plate and send a summons to the owner of the vehicle.
Unless a car looks reckless, officers won’t run to their car and radio other cops for assistance or anything like that either.
Therefore, the reality here is, this kind of incident is actually pretty common in Japan.
Second question has got to be, why did he get locked up for so long?
He was arrested on May 18th and was finally able to post bail on June 4th.
On top of this the police can interrogate you without a presence of your attorney during this period also.
Since this is a common legal practice in the land of the rising sun, there is no mystery about his long stay in the joint.
However if you admit your crime and pay a fine, usually, if this is your first offense, the police will send you home in 48 hours so there is a reason to suspect here that Misaki perhaps did not admit his action or maybe didn’t agreed to the details.
"Your side mirror has struck my arm, is actually also a very common tactic of the Japanese police officers to pressure violators.
In a country like Japan you don’t see a full on car chase like we see here in the TruTV so in order for police to press charges legally, smoothly, and efficiently, police use these charges to, basically bust criminals and violators.
I know Misaki is a very straight guy, with more of an old style Japanese philosophy, so I can’t picture him denying his action. He probably admitted immediately but I am suspecting here that Misaki maybe denied the side mirror of his vehicle hitting the officers, and there is huge possibility here that side mirror actually did not hit the officer as well.
Yes this is nothing but my pure speculation yet 22 days sounds a bit out of the ordinary. Especially for a man with no prior record, with a legitimate profession. And because of this, not only did Misaki miss the official signing of Satoshi Ishii and the Sengoku event held in front of 3,000 fans but also he could not attend the press conference announcing his fight against Kazuhiro Nakamura coming up on August 2nd.
The Japanese public can be very hard on a public figure who usually causes this type of incident. Some heartless fans are already saying that Misaki fled because he had something in the car. There are rumors circulating on the net that Misaki denied everything and got caught lying and that is why he couldn’t get out for this long.
It’s all nothing but imagination. People are just talking, and of course, guessing and gossiping.
So this is very damaging for Misaki for sure but from the press conference held on June 26th, it seemed, World Victory Road (WVR) is not scratching Misaki from the Sengoku Ninth show at Saitama Super Arena.
Misaki apologized deeply and told the reporters, "I am not in a position to talk about my next fight. I would like Sengoku to decide that. But as a fighter and a person, I need to put an effort to regain the trust I lost."
Then WVR director Takahiro Kokuho followed, "The commission will decide in regards to the August 2nd fight. But personally I would like him to fight. Showing how Kazuo Misaki fights in the ring, that is the best compensation he can pay."
The decision is yet to be announced but in the TV show called "Sengoku Gold" just aired late Sunday night in Japan, it didn’t even mention Nakamura – Misaki card.
Which is very odd considering how the show lined up all the other announced cards except this fight.
PIC: Kazuo Misaki apologized in public about his misbehavior. Sitting on his left, is Takahioro Kokuho, a WVR director.
