Some stations may be ok with it. I just know I've been in a few where it was frowned on. If it was in that one, you could have either been lucky or you just escaped by virtue of being a foreigner. Japanese are often reluctant to approach foreigners even for security matters due to their embarrassment at bad English and/or uncertainty at how to deal with the language barrier. We often call this "power" to get away with things we shouldn't be allowed to get away with "gaijin smash".