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That’s me after a certain someone pushed me down some stairs.

After growing up in a house with multiple levels and stairs I had to climb daily, not a single person alive, including my mother, can factually claim to have seen me ever fall down stairs. I did once while alone, over 15 years ago.

The reason I fell down stairs last night is because I was pushed. I was just taking my first step down the stairs and then there was a force from behind, focused on my back, which propelled me enough that although I gripped the railing it was not enough.

I got blood on one of my favorite shirts.

Inexcusable.

I have now been to the police 3 times regarding this incident. They will do nothing.

In fact there are witnesses who saw him pushing me, but not down the stairs. They claim to have seen me being pushed “until” the stairs. So what is it? I just decided this random time to throw myself down some stairs?

Try to make some sense, people.

I’ve been to the police 3 times now and they have contacted him as well.

Our stories are basically the same, even up to the point where he was pushing me towards the stairs, but his story ends there.

He denies pushing me down the stairs, and since the door had closed (many saw him pushing me before the door closed) it is just his story against mine.

So police will take no action.

What can I do?

In the photo there is a bandage on my leg. I now limp on that leg as a result of being pushed down stairs.

If anyone has any knowledge of legal recourse in Japan, please advise.

L. Spiro

If you're limping perhaps you need more than a bandage, but anyway. Would installing a camera near the stairs be illegal? If not you could do that and have solid evidence next time it happens. But I have to ask.. why would someone just randomly push you down the stairs? Is this common in Japan, does he have mental issues, or is this some personal conflict? Your recourse would probably depend on that to some extent, imho..

What sort of action are you looking for? While inexcusable behavior on the pusher's part, this seems like a pretty minor case of assault (about as minor as it could get) resulting in a pretty minor injury (a single, small bandage and likely some bruising to boot, hence the limp). Even in the ultra-tort-mania US, I have a hard time imagining the police doing more than filing a report for a situation like this unless there are significant medical bills involved.

You've lived too long outside of the US to think the tort angle will go anywhere, especially in a place where medical care is as available and reasonably priced as Japan. As for a crime-and-punishment angle, what you're describing doesn't exactly scream for a city-wide manhunt or even the expense of holding him in a cell overnight.

Your phrasing makes me think that you know the pusher personally, at least in passing. Do you have any idea why you were pushed? Do you think that he or she might be a danger to others, likely to cause similar incidents? That might get the police moving.

I do know him, and we have been on good terms for the last several years.

The action I sought was just to have him reported so that if anything further happens there will be a documented history. I am not even going to pretend that a foreigner would win against a Japanese without conclusive proof, and while it should be obvious to anyone that the second time I have ever fallen down stairs just happens to be the night he was pushing me towards stairs (and that part he even admits) and that there is a clear connection between these events, without a witness or recording there is nothing else I can do.

L. Spiro

If that's what you're looking to do, you can document it yourself just as easily (it seems like you've already done this, in fact). It's not on the police record, but I don't think that that's something you would be able to manage in a case like this without having someone in the police station that owes you a favor or something. Less easy to prove is your cat-like stair mastery, as no one is going to be able to confirm or deny it with any degree of reliability, but in the event of a second pushing that shouldn't matter anyhow given that you've documented this incident.

It sucks that your friend pushed you. Well, that anyone would push you down the stairs. But still, someone you know and wouldn't expect it from is worse.

I thought this thread would be about "falling down the stairs" in police custody (hint: most wives of policeman prefer to live in bungalows).

But it's about a bandage and a limp.

I've fallen UP stairs many times when drunk.

Sounds bad tho bro.

1) Install a bat/fireman pole sort of thing, bonus points for wearing a cape

2) Change into your nice shirt after you get downstairs

3) Turn autosave on so you can reload after passing through a door.

We might be rare people here where I live but here, if someone pushes down the stairs, you aren't in "good terms" with him/her nor you're "friends".

If you were in good terms with him, why would he push you down the stairs? Was alcohol involved?

There really shouldn't ever be a second time. This is a perfect case of Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again.

Ya, that's not really how it goes, but anyways. And it isn't a perfect case either cause there wasn't really any fooling going on (at least, that's what it sounds like). At the very least though, you should have learned never to turn your back on this guy anywhere near stairs again (or perhaps anywhere at all). If there ever is a second incident, who's the fool then?

I thought this thread would be about "falling down the stairs" in police custody

Interestingly, having been arrested and beaten up by the police ("fell down stairs") was exactly what I thought, too.

We might be rare people here where I live but here, if someone pushes down the stairs, you aren't in "good terms" with him/her nor you're "friends"

You're not as rare as you may think. I wouldn't precisely use the wording "on good terms" either in that situation.

Here, pushing someone down the stairs would happen much more in a "stop fucking my 16 year old sister" or in a "stop slandering me at work" context. It sure isn't something you do by accident or because you're good friends, not even if you had a particularly bad day.

But who knows... in Asia, it might be in a "see what can happen if you have no insurance" context, too. That guy got yakuza tattoos by any chance?