Ok, please go easy on me. This was a very traumatic experience and I am seeking your advice and experience as my research is showing mixed answers online.
Today, I was driving my wife to an extremely important meeting in Tokyo. I exited the highway (first car in line) and moved directly to the left lane because I needed to turn left. I am guessing (didn’t witness it) the driver behind me tried to speed around me and I may have cut him off. He honked his horn and flashed his lights like a crazy person and then tried to drive around me on the right. He was in the straight lane and when I turned left, he suddenly turned left as well, even though he was in the wrong lane. He then tried to swerve into my car multiple times, brake checked me, and swerved all over the road. My wife was crying and terrified. I was angry. I stopped about 2 meters before the next light hoping he would pull forward and ignore me, but he stopped and reversed back to scream at me. I admittedly yelled back.
Little did we know a police officer was standing at the corner. I assumed he witnessed the drivers craziness and flagged the driver down. I was in the left lane but needed to turn right (he previously blocked me from entering that lane). I saw the driver get out of his car and start running towards me (in front of the police) so I got scared (and I knew I only had about 2 minutes to get my wife to her appointment) so I turned right. Only after I did this my wife said he was trying to flag me down as well. I was looking right to make sure I could turn so I didn't see him. But the light turned red and I went in a panic.
I have dashcam video of the driver acting crazy and trying to hit us. I honestly did not see the officer try to flag me down, but I understand that is my fault and I made it worse by going through the red light.
Has anyone experienced anything like this?
Searching online in Japanese many people seem to say if you’re not stopped in the act, you’re fine. Others say I’ll get a summons later. It's highly likely he got my number plate, if not, the crazy driver probably had a dash cam that captured my plate. But, I'm sure he doesn't want to give up his footage to the police.
I’m most concerned with going to the police station and getting arrested when we didn’t intentionally do anything wrong. We were panicking from the driver trying to hit us and were genuinely scared. After I dropped her off at her appointment, I considered going back and talking to the officer, but with my poor Japanese, I thought that would be a bad idea.
I'm guessing I should consult a lawyer, it's quite an expense to do so though. My anxiety is through the roof. Hoping for some helpful advice here. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
by TofuDelivery13