Stopped by traffic police

During a recent drive holiday, we were stopped by police at Centrair because one of us did not have our seatbelt on. We not sure what to make of the incident so we'll appreciate if anyone can advise or comment on it.

The incident happened when we were on our way back to the airport to return the rental car. At the last turn just before the rental car area, one of us released the seat belt to reach for something in the back seat. We were stopped at a make-shift road block manned by 3 police officiers. We couldn't tell if they were traffic police or the airport police. They were rather surprised to learn that we were tourists when they told us the reason for stopping us. They asked for both our passports and permission to check on our status. Naturally, we agreed and they went back to their car to do the checking over the phone. As we waiting in our car, we could also see them writing something but we could not tell if they were copying down our particulars or issusing a summon. A few minutes later, they returned our passports and told us very nicely that in Japan, seat belts were mandatory.

Becuase of the langauge barrier, we could not explain nor was there much communication so can anyone please help decipher what actually happened? Have we been booked or just given a warning? Thanks

You were not given a ticket. They verified that you were tourists and let you off with a warning. If they had given you a ticket, you would have been presented with it.

If you didn't get any "ticket" right there, you didn't get "booked."

That reminds me of an encounter with a couple of police officers in Narita. They seem to do really random checks on people here and there. My feeling is that you might have bumped into a check like that, rather than checking really for seatbelt and other potential traffic rule violations. But since they "noticed" that you did not have your seatbelt on, they "had" to mention it as a side remark :)

Once when we (Japanese national and European spouse) were in Narita Airport station after arriving back from overseas (we were just going to buy the train tickets to travel into Tokyo, and decided buy a bottle of water and stood there and were sipping from the bottle), a couple of police officers came over to us and started talking to us, in English initially then in Japanese upon learning that I was Japanese (they were extremely friendly).

They explained politely that they were just doing a "random" check on people who pass through the airport/related facility, showed their police badge, and asked if they could see our ID. Upon our permission to do so, they did jot down our passport numbers into their little notebooks - I bet that went on their daily duty log, and that was it.