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From the BBC: How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime

"The response to violence is never violence, it's always to de-escalate it. Only six shots were fired by Japanese police nationwide [in 2015]," says journalist Anthony Berteaux. "What most Japanese police will do is get huge futons and essentially roll up a person who is being violent or drunk into a little burrito and carry them back to the station to calm them down."

Do Japanese police wrap people who are drunk or violent in giant futons?

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    The use of this device has no bearing on the use of guns in Japan. What does is that in Japan guns are almost universally not allowed as opposed to the United States, for example, where gun possession is considered a a basic right.
    – Barry
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 23:51

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Yes, they do in fact do this! It is called a "protection sheet" 保護シート and it is a thin sheet made from plastic, not a futon.

Here is a video of a violent drunk being rolled up, and another of a drunk who was wrapped in a sheet but released from it. (He is saying "I can walk" in a very slurred way).

One of Japan's tabloids reports that a famous boy band singer named Tsuyoshi Kusanagi was transferred to a police station this way in 2009 after he was found completely naked and blacked out in a park at 3am. He later returned to work for the band.

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    I want to find a nice photo of the 保護シートto make it clear that it is more like a canvas or a thin sleeping bag than a futon or burrito, but when I search, I just get phone protector sheets.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 10:02
  • I think it is just a standard ビニールシート (the kind used for picnics). It is hard to find any pictures of it in action or discussion on police websites, and the videos I linked were made by a kind of sketchy citizen journalist. I think there might be a cultural taboo against taking photos, because the appearance of the "protection sheet" resembles an old practice called 簀巻き which consisted of wrapping dead bodies or condemned prisoners in a straw mat and throwing them into the ocean. But I did not find any sources saying this outright.
    – Avery
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 10:14
  • Here's a slightly clearer photo... like the video maker, the guy who took this photo is clearly a little weird. japculture.com/…
    – Avery
    Commented Jan 7, 2017 at 10:23

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