[Henbaka]

Maybe they didn't become so serious because of nature of the crime(?).

But my experience of police in japan is, well, kinda funny. I did not get into any trouble myself seeing as I am so well-behaved, but some things I saw during my 4 months there:

* A drunk american _punching_ a police officer in the stomach after beeing asked to come along, and the only consequence was that they (bout 4-5 officers) continued to ask him to come along with them.

* A police officer running a good 50 meters beside a drunk(seemed like) guy on a bicycle trying to get him to stop (and not just grabbing him)

* Another drunk guy in my guesthouse involved in, let's call it a domestic disturbance. Policemen came, tried to talk to him. He countered by screaming the police officers down, acting really bad. The policemen subsequently left and there were no consequences.

Man, I would never even imagine to punch a swedish police officer, let alone whilst surrounded by several more. Damn just to think of how fast I would be planted on the ground after something like that, lol.