Self-defense in Japan
First of all, I wrote this text in my native language, Spanish, and translated it into English with ChatGPT because my English is not good enough.
The topic of self-defense has always interested and worried me, but even more so lately because I have a family with small children and I am planning to buy a detached house.
The thing is, a house is not the same as an apartment when it comes to security. For someone to enter your apartment on the fifth floor, they would have to break down your door or climb up the balconies like Tarzan. But in a detached house, it is easier for someone to break a window, or who knows what else.
What I would like to know is what options we have for self-defense in Japan. I have done some research, and from what I have seen, it seems that legally you cannot really defend yourself. There is something called proportional defense or proportional force, something like that, I do not remember exactly. Basically, it means that if someone enters your house illegally, you can get into trouble if you defend yourself or “attack” that criminal with, let’s say, a baseball bat that you have there to play with your child.
What the law says is that you should run away, take shelter, and call the police, but never confront the person who has illegally entered your home, even though you have no idea what their intentions are, whether they came to steal, to assault the women in the house, or something even worse.
Of course, that would be the ideal situation, but in reality, it is normal to be caught off guard, or to have your family sleeping in separate rooms. In that case, the only option may be to confront the criminal, scare them away, or, in the worst case, attack them in self-defense. But then you would already be turning yourself into a criminal, because if you hurt the criminal, you are the one who has broken the law. What the hell?
What I mean is that the law does not seem to consider that you may need to defend yourself in your own home. Seriously, do I not have the right to defend my home and my family? If a burglar enters my house, am I supposed to just let them take my belongings and wait for the police to arrive? And if that person came with the intention of hurting us, am I supposed to let them commit some horrible act because, according to the law, I am not allowed to defend myself?
Honestly, this is something I sometimes think about because I simply cannot understand it. I know that, for example, in the United States, if someone enters your private property, you have every right to defend yourself by any means necessary, which seems logical and reasonable to me.
What do you think about this? What forms of self-defense have you considered using in case something like this ever happens to you?
Honestly, I would rather go to prison than allow someone to enter my home and do whatever they want.