Why would I even consider doing that? However, I did notice that 9 out of the 40 students in my first year university class last year were left handed. It was the most left-handed Japanese I've ever seen in one place. Also...I can write Japanese kanji and kana perfectly well with my left hand.

I'm left-handed and have noticed that a lot of other people in the English education field here in Japan are also left-handed. At one school 9 out of 10 of the teachers were left-handed and I went to a seminar recently where all 6 attendees were left-handed. Are there any other language teachers here? Have you noticed anything similar?

That's really weird. The only trouble I've hear of in Kansai is from nearly 2 decades ago when illegal phone cards were being sold at 10% face value. People had learnt how to put a small magnetic strips long the edge and write to it to make the card appear legit to the public phone, but they were visibly modified. Police used to go up to foreigners in public phone boxes, particularly those used for international calls, hang up the phone mid-conversation and take the card. If it was a 'real' card they returned it and walked away, otherwise you could expect to take a short walk to the police box with them. The only interaction I've had with the police has been reporting lost wallets and stolen bicycles. I got them back in both cases.

While I don't want to appear to doubt you, I've lived in Japan for almost 20 years now and have yet to be stopped and asked to show my ARC and the same goes for almost everyone I know. Is this a problem outside of the Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto) area or have we just been collectively lucky? I also carry mine constantly however.