Jan-Poo's point about American prisons not being safe, and ceasing to use the phone being a death sentence both make sense to me. So #9 (who I will try not to call "Akira") probably wasn't trying to get himself arrested. But a naked man with a gun pointed at the White House is certainly going to attract the attention of police. I still haven't heard or come up with a reasonable theory for why he was naked.
As for waiting until Saki got out of the way, once he was naked, the clock was ticking until police nabbed him, so he couldn't wait? I also looked at a couple of frames from ep1 and I'm not so sure he was pointing at her. From frame #2 it seems possible, but she's not visible in frame 1 (out of frame just to right? just arriving?). I think she was let off on Constitution Avenue, had to walk north around the Ellipse, then crossed Pennsylvania Avenue and approached the White House from the east (the right, in the screencaps). Not saying she definitely wasn't his target, just that I'm not convinced
yet. And are you sure all those snapshots on the map are of tourist places? The ones below and to the right aren't that identifiable. I wish the notes were a little clearer. The only one I can really read is the one near the top that says "beautiful building?"
However, Saki's cab driver is rather weird. He seems to be sniggering, and I fancy he glances over to where #9
might be as he puts down her bag. And Saki has an odd depressed and serious look when you first see the side of her face in the cab. I think these are clues, but I'm not sure to what.
I still have trouble imagining that she has any knowledge of the Selecao system. She is so determined to throw that coin into the White House fountain. She is thinking of her classmates in NYC being angry with her. On her bed in ep4 she says "what am I doing?" just like anyone in love. Not like someone whose interest in #9 has anything to do with Selecao.
Even if #9 had Saki in mind when he fabricated the Akira identity (if he did that), why did he choose the right passport? How could he have been so sure his mindwiped self would pick on the basis of birthdate, or even know her birthdate? And someone said they were all Japanese passports. I thought I saw one with a red cover.
As for
MeoTwister's point about the problems, this idea of Japan facing desperate social, economic, and/or cultural problems that absolutely need to be solved for the sake of the country is a common idea in Japan, at least over the past few years. The earliest person I can think of who talked about it was the right-wing (for lack of a better term) novelist Mishima Yukio, who I think wrote in the 1960s, and committed hara-kiri out of despair. So it's a pretty serious deal.
Fun.