Are Police Scanners Allowed In Japan??

[Uncle Frank]

I take mine whenever I travel. I'm not planning on going to Japan in the near future, but I wondered what would happen at customs if I had a scanner?

Frank

:o :o :o :o

[名無し]

Quality scanner manufacturers like AOR (http://www.aorja.com/), Yaesu (http://www.yaesu.com/), Kenwood (http://www.kenwood.net/) and Icom (http://www.icomamerica.com/) are all Japanese anyway, not to mention that the Radio Law (http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/laws/radiolaw2003/RL-index.html) Article 59 (in Chapter Ⅴ (http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/laws/radiolaw2003/Chap5.html), Section 1) basically means that it's perfectly legal to listen to whatever, as long as you don't tell its existence/content to anyone.
(Police radio over there has been digitally encrypted since the Glico-Morinaga case in the 1980s; not sure about the 840MHz old cellular band block.)

It's still possible that bored airport officials love the idea of interrogating you (I'd buy a scanner after entering Japan if I were a spy or something.)

[playaa]

Frank, are you talking about a Radar Detector, or an actual CB Radio?

[mdchachi]

He's talking about neither. He's talking about one-way radios that pick up restricted frequencies reserved for government, aviation, mobile phones, etc. It can't transmit. So it's similar to your everyday FM/AM radio except it picks up other portions of the spectrum.

[playaa]

Oh, I see.. :bluush:

[nikki_the_insane]

We've got a super old one lying around the house that it takes 2 hours to program then the batteries go dead and we have to do it all over again. You never get much talk or interesting things where I live. It would be neat to listen in when you're in a major city like L.A. or Las Vegas. Oooo, I may do that next time I'm done in L.V. Hehehehe...

[Uncle Frank]

We've got a super old one lying around the house that it takes 2 hours to program then the batteries go dead and we have to do it all over again. You never get much talk or interesting things where I live. It would be neat to listen in when you're in a major city like L.A. or Las Vegas. Oooo, I may do that next time I'm done in L.V. Hehehehe...

There are many sites that let you listen in to their cities
police & fire on your PC. Be forwarned though, until your ear gets used to it, it can sound like gobbley-gook. Most use a ten codes and terminology that you need to know.
It's a facinating hobby that changes daily. My city of Portland, Me uses trunking radios hooked into laptops
on the center consol of the cruisers. They are working an a setup that will do away with all talking, and just use the PC. I have thousands of dollars invested in equipment and antennas that will all be useless if they do change.

Frank