Police interactions are quite infrequent among non-criminally adjacent people. Keep in mind lots of those policing minorities are minorities themselves. Police kill thousands of white people too. So in a sense your question is why doesn’t everyone leave America because of fear of police?
Everytime I talk with other non-Americans about traveling in the US one of the main fears that comes up all the time is fear of the police. So I can't imagine the Japanese police being nearly as much a cause of concern and or fear.
I think people should have a rational fear of police everywhere, including Japan. Police have a state given power over you, and that can be abused no matter where you are.
Japan isn't perfect here. Your rights when dealing with the police here are different (and not in a better way). You do not have the right to remain silent, and your silence can be used against you. They can keep you in jail for ~30 days without charges. It's an open secret that the police can and do beat prisoners to get confessions out of them.
That said, if I had to chose an interaction between the Japanese police and the US police, I'd take the Japanese police every single time.
Aren't Japanese police just as likely to target "the foreigner" in the neighborhood anyway? They're not going to shoot on sight the way an American cop would but their ability (and legal leeway) to extract confessions is infamous.
Only if you are a criminal. Don't point a gun at a cop and you won't get killed by one. If you don't break laws or speed you will not actually interact with cops in the US. I'm 45 and the only times I have ever interacted with police is when I got pulled over for speeding, or something wrong with my car.
Put aside the sample size of one for a moment. The fact you've only dealt with the police when genuinely committing crimes, and their response was proportional to the crime, is most likely down to your skin colour.
> and their response was proportional to the crime, is most likely down to your skin colour.
And also due to the fact I was calm, reasonable, cooperative, and didn't point a gun at them. If you are trying to argue that a person's behavior has no effect on how likely they are to be killed by a cop then you are just completely wrong.
Those are 4 people out of many thousands that have been killed by police in the US, they are hardly representative. A persons actions have hundreds of times more impact on how likely they are to be killed by a cop than his race.
Without putting words in their mouth, I think they are arguing that in the US, one’s skin color plays a larger role than their behavior, when it comes to whether their interaction with the police results in brutality or not. While they are both factors, one is a stronger predictor than the other.
If I’m pulled over while being white and I cooperate, I’m probably getting the ticket and going on my way. Worst case the cop is having a bad day and wants to escalate, they arrest me for something. If I’m black, worst case I’m going to the morgue. Average case is going to be worse if I’m black, all other things (including my attitude) being equal.
"one’s skin color plays a larger role than their behavior"
When it comes to actually getting killed by cops I don't think this is true. The vast majority of people killed by cops are doing something very foolish like pointing a gun at them or rushing them with a knife.
Please do a few google searches on this topic so that you can change your worldview. I know it's tough to challenge your core beliefs, but part of intellectual curiosity is also personal growth, especially around topics that you have an emotional attachment to.