{"id":399,"date":"2016-05-04T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/?p=399"},"modified":"2016-05-04T09:22:18","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T00:22:18","slug":"%e3%81%9d%e3%82%8c%e3%81%a7%e3%82%82%e3%80%81%e5%bf%83%e9%85%8d%e3%81%aa%e3%81%84%e3%81%8b%e3%82%89%e3%81%ad%ef%bc%9f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/blog\/399.html","title":{"rendered":"Another Safety \u201cRant\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Another Safety \u201cRant\u201d?<\/h3>\n

2016.05.04<\/p>\n

Some people might think I am being over the top in claiming<\/a> that an unattended bag at an airport is a sign of complacency and lax security.<\/p>\n

Of course I understand that 99 times out of 100 (more, even) an unattended bag is just that. But I just mean that this is the kind of assumption that terrorists rely on.<\/p>\n

And there is a pattern. I remember just after the sarin gas attacks, when all Japan was supposedly on super alert, that I got off the Saikyo Line at Shinjuku (the terminus then) and saw a plastic bag left on the train, with something in it. I alerted a JR staff member on the platform and he... walked over, picked it up, opened it and peered into it. With me three feet away.<\/p>\n

Another time (circa 2014), I stepped onto a Ginza line subway train just as the doors were closing. Very unusually, there were only a couple of people on that carriage \u2013 all at one end or the other. Even more unusually, there was a large, packed rucksack on a seat in front of me. There was, in my view, no conceivable way someone could leave home with a rucksack that big then \u201cforget\u201d it in the same way people put a new purchase on the luggage rack and forget it. It was very suspicious.<\/p>\n

It seemed to take ages to get to the next stop but when we did I leapt off and went straight to the man on the platform and began to tell him what I saw. He shushed me and ignored me. I insisted but he was \u201cbusy\u201d operating some device on the platform. I said that he must look where I was pointing but he stepped across the platform to deal with the departure of a train over there. Meanwhile the train with the huge rucksack left.<\/p>\n

When I eventually told him that there was a large rucksack that could contain a bomb he looked at me as if I was mad. When I left the station, I told the staff at the office. \u201cM\u014dshi wake arimasen<\/span>\u201d he said perfunctorily. Not: \u201cA massive rucksack, you say? The train that just left? Do you know which carriage? I will call the next station...\u201d<\/p>\n

I think it would have had to have wires sticking out of it and loud ticking for anyone to take notice.<\/p>\n

Another time (2007), I am embarrassed to say that I accidentally carried small box cutter through security at Narita (in a forgotten pocket in my jacket).<\/p>\n

When I hear announcements about heightened security on trains, or see a drill on TV with staff evacuating a station and robots investigating a bag, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s real. It\u2019s basically just an attempt to reassure people that everything is okay. Until it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another Safety \u201cRant\u201d? 2016.05.04 Some people might think I am being over the top in claiming that an unattended bag at an airport is a sign of complacency and lax security. Of course I understand that 99 times out of 100 (more, even) an unattended bag is just that. But I just mean that this is the kind of assumption that terrorists rely on. And there is a pattern. I remember just after the sarin gas attacks, when all Japan was supposedly on super alert, that I got off the Saikyo Line at Shinjuku (the terminus then) and saw a plastic bag left on the train, with something in it. I alerted a JR staff member on the platform and[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colinjoyce","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sankenbook.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}