Crime in Japan: An utterly simplistic view

...crime, especially violent crime, is dependent on external factors (the lack of availability of guns) and cultural factors (emphasis on honor and group harmony.) In the U.S., with the incredible ease of obtaining weapons and the emphasis on people "doing their own thing," a much higher level of violent crime should not be a surprise...

...The ease of obtaining guns also automatically causes crimes to be of a much more violent nature in the U.S. then in Japan... Crime in Japan

Huh?

Folks who are stabbed to death with freely available, razor-sharp, 8 inch-long kitchen knives must die less violently and be less dead than those shot to death. Probably die more honorably and in a more harmonious way too.

Murder rate to drop beginning at midnight!

Last year, after the mass murder in Akihabara, the government took swift action to prevent such things from happening again. It outlawed the possession of certain knives---shall we call them assault knives?---with double-edged blades of more than 5cm long.

On July 4, the grace period will run out for those who possess these evil instruments. Failure to turn them in carries a penalty of up to 3 years in prison and a ¥500,000 fine. The knives, that is. The government failed to do anything about the other weapon that the creature used to run down and murder people---a rental truck. These are still readily available for nearly anyone with a drivers license. The much longer than 5cm razor sharp kitchen knives nearly every home has which seem to be used much more often in murders? Not included. Will Michael Moore show up here and do one of his "documentaries?"

This well-conceived law seems to have caused a bit of confusion for those who use double-edged knives for shelling sea critters in Hokkaido, although that is a small price to pay for the increased safety and security it will bring.

Justice delayed, justice denied

A man wrongly imprisoned for murdering a 4-year old has been released from prison. As is commonly the case, he had "voluntarily"confessed to the crime, but later withdrew the confession. Since the criminal justice system had locked up the wrong guy, they have so far missed out on searching for the real killer whom we might assume is still running around free. Since there is a statute of limitations even for murder in Japan, the 17 years that have passed may be very significant if they are counted towards the 25 year limit.

"I'll never forgive the real culprit, even if the statute of limitations expires," Toshikazu Sugaya, 62, told reporters in Chiba after his release. "From now on, I will work to support people who have also been (wrongfully) convicted."

...Manabu Sasamori, a lawyer in Sugaya's defense team, slammed the prosecutors, saying: "It is only natural that he be released. Actually, this step came too late."...The prosecutors will probably admit they forced a confession out of Sugaya once his retrial begins, Sasamori added. [His conviction is expected to be overturned in retrial] Japan Times

Perhaps this sort of thing might be prevented or at least reduced if recording of police/suspect interviews was required. But no, according to confessed terrorist contact Kunio Hatoyama*'s "Justice" Ministry successor, considering that "would be difficult."**

Serving 17 years in prison for nothing is probably just a bit difficult too, but since politicians and bureaucrats very, very rarely ever serve that kind of time none of them are gonna worry too much. And besides, we've often heard those guys who run the system with kobans---I refuse to call them professional law enforcement officers---say that to record those interviews would damage the "trust" that suspects and Japan's finest develop. I wonder what Mr. Sugaya would say about that trust? Imagine just how stupid they must think the public is to even make that kind of statement. (Or perhaps how apathetic/passive the public is?)

Speaking of the boys in blue, in Okayama a 29-year old officer in charge of theft investigations was apprehended by two high school boys after he snatched a purse from an old lady. No word on whether or not he has apologized yet.**

Were I a religious person, I'd be praying for a DPJ victory. However, there is a horribly frightening rumor going around that the friend of a friend of terrorists, Kunio Hatoyama, may be considering going to the DPJ!

* This fellow is still a government minister. Why?

**Both shown on the 6PM news.

A man breaks into a young woman's home

with the intent of satisfying his "abnormal sex desire" by raping her. However, he does not rape her, but abducts her to his apartment, then murders her by stabbing her in the neck, then cuts up her body and flushes parts of her down the toilet.

Later, after he is arrested, he expresses (sincere?) remorse for doing all that.

The murder itself did not meet the Supreme Court standards for a death sentence. Besides, he (only?) premeditated rape but did not actually commit it, and although the unpremeditated murder and dismemberment was "selfish and self-centered," he said that he was sorry.

Because of that expression of remorse there is hope for rehabilitation, said the judge.

There is no hope for the young lady. Story at the Asahi Shimbun/IHT.

Not our fault. The devil made us do it.

I missed this somehow, but it is still a shock.

It should not be, as I remember that it took the police an extraordinarily long time decide whether to make an arrest. I recall that they even had a tough time determining that the teenage victim of the beating had suffered anything other than the normal bruises and injuries of ordinary sumo practice. In fact, his death was initially ruled as due to heart failure.

The three sumo wrestlers who beat the boy to death were given "suspended sentences" and they weren't even company executives.. They were, in effect, let off.

Early last year when the police finally made the arrests---after the family questioned how the bruised battered body of their son did not raise any suspicions of foul play---the father was quoted as saying:

"I do understand that the master's orders are absolute, so maybe they couldn't help it, but if they had reconsidered, this would not have happened."

The judge in this case only half agreed.

Despite the fears of the old boys running sumo, it is not the foreign wrestlers who are ruining the sport.

Trivia

"Daggers" of over 5.5 cm are now illegal in Japan. This will make society safer than before.*

Murder suspect Kazuyoshi Miura, who apparently committed suicide in LA a few weeks ago, may have been the victim of a homicide according to a pathologist hired by his attorney. No motive for the supposed murder has been suggested by the lawyer, but if we wait, he will make one up---oops, I mean discover one. I hope this lawyer has some real evidence behind his claims, but the only surprise would have been if the pathologist whom he hired had found no evidence of foul play and had agreed with the LA coroner that it was a suicide.

*Or not. A bill banning them has passed, but it has not become law yet. The danger remains!!!!

Woman, 79, slashes two at Shibuya

Female pair wounded; suspect says she fled shelter, is broke, wants police to care for her.

A 79-year-old woman slashed two women with a fruit knife..."I thought police would take care of me if I caused an incident." JTOnline

Well, gotta add fruit knives to the list of knives to ban. Could it be possible that there are other problems that the government of old, never-had-a-new-idea-and-never-will geezers should look in to? Could it be possible that neither making new rules for the type of knives that can be legally sold, nor attempting to return the the "Beautiful Country" imaginary past will solve them? Could it be possible that there will be no perfect solution? Could there be problems with social welfare that should be looked into? Would the country not be better served by the LDP/DJP actually doing something? Will Fukuda et al take action? BAHAHAHAHA! Is this really an increasingly common problem, or does it just seem so because of the juiciness of the stories for the media?

2025: I love blogger. I can change the font size in "compose" mode with the target highlighted and nothing happens. Then I can check in "edit html" and supposedly font size is "normal", but yet when published it is extra large. Blogger does not have not 12/14 point sizes. That's why it's free(?)

Good God Man, where is Inspector Clouseau?

Only about 30 percent of nearly 2,400 stores across Japan selling knives considered highly lethal, including daggers, check the buyer's name, age and other information, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

If we can get the other 70% to do too, it will have a big impact on stabbings and slashings in Japan. Let's say that you are a nut and that you want to die so you decide to kill others so that you will get the death penalty. Wouldn't having to show your ID when you purchase your dagger stop you? Of course it would! Especially if the plan to make certain size and style of daggers illegal becomes law. (Oh. What if you decide to use a regular, freely available at your local grocer kitchen knife as most murders have been doing? Let's not think about that as it would cause confusion.)

The survey [of the shops] included daggers, survival knives, Gurkha knives and other types of blades considered likely to be used as weapons. Everyday tools such as kitchen knives and box cutters, in addition to hatchets, axes and other industrial tools, were not included. Japan Times.

24 August: And they still have not taken any action to restrict the availability of rental trucks. The Akihabara murderer used one to kill several in his rampage through the area.

Nuts with knives

Just last week, in a move meant more to give an impression of being able to actually do something about murder, the government came up with the clever idea of banning daggers of a certain size. This was because the mass murderer at Akihabara used daggers (and a rental truck) to kill his victims.

This was not a serious effort to do anything as it is very easy to predict that if a murderer is going to commit murder, that thing could substitute a kitchen knife for a dagger. That apparently is what happened yesterday in Hachioji as another sleazer (Oh, am I being insensitive to the creature? After all he had job problems and his parents may have been less perfect in his mind than he had hoped.) killed one woman and injured another with a newly purchased knife with a 15cm blade.

Well, if you can't do anything, it is at least good to put on a show of doing something. Could the problems of these types of people be deeper and more complex---and ultimately unsolvable---than the type of knife (or truck) they use?

Hatayama again expresses the uniquely Japanese

love of life. Three more convicted murderers were hanged yesterday, including Tsutomo Miyazaki. Miyazaki had killed four young girls in the late 80s and cannibalized them. He also sent their bones to their parents.

The world is no worse off without him or the others around---if they were truly guilty (and perhaps if one believes that society has the moral authority to kill people). The problem is: What if they were not.

[Psychologist] Hasegawa said he doubts Miyazaki realized what was happening when he was taken to the gallows Tuesday morning. "If he did not realize it, the execution may not have had any meaning," he said. Japan Times article.

Since the vast majority of those arrested (98-99%?) in Japan are found guilty, we can rest assured that there could be no mistakes....

Worldwide coverage of the mass murder in Akihabara has continued for days. It is a horrible incident, perhaps made more newsworthy because such things are relatively rare in modern Japan. Many journalists still seem especially shocked since gun control laws are relatively strict in Japan---nothing really to do with this incident, but many still mention that fact.

Could it be that this guy was one of those individuals who for whatever reason is prone to taking out his problems on others and all the laws/therapy in the world still couldn't stop him. Much of his behavior seems to parallel that of other modern mass murderers elsewhere in the world. The concern is that there are others like him who will be inspired by his act and resulting "fame" and will elect to try to do the same or worse. If we can do something to stop this kind of person---and we'll never stop them all---it will take much more than tweaking laws on the type/size of knife people can have. That is almost certainly a total waste of time, but it gives the appearance of doing something when nobody really knows what to do.

Government to restrict large knives?

In response to yesterday's attacks:

At a news conference on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said the government was considering tightening restrictions on large-bladed knifes in response to the attack.

"We need to think of the possibility of discussing tightening the control of guns and knives," he said. (BBC)

I think so too, since it is simple and easy and makes it look like something is being done about something for which nobody has answers or solutions. Wonder if it will include the large kitchen knives which are often used in knife assaults? Since nearly every household in Japan has them, it may be tough. Perhaps it will only apply to non-kitchen utensils.**

It should work though, just like it has in Britain even though the causes may differ:

...This explosion in knife crime is the most astounding symptom of Britain’s broken society. The government has been slow to recognise and even slower to act to deal with this plague on the streets of our towns and cities,” said Davis.

Richard Garside, director of the CCJS, said ministers had taken the wrong approach to tackling the problem. “The government has embarked on endless law and order initiatives, yet knife-related robberies appear to be increasing, if the latest figures are to be believed,” he said.

“This challenges the notion that there is a policing or punishment solution to this problem. Success in tackling knife-related violence will require a concerted strategy to deal with the causes of violence...

...Critics have accused the government of lacking a coherent strategy to tackle the problem and of resorting to knee-jerk legislative responses...(That can't be said about the Japanese government!) Times Online.

**This still does not address the fact that a rental truck was used to injure/kill some of the victims. Are there going to be additional controls on rental vehicles to prevent vehicular assault/homicide?

Note added: There are already restrictions on the ownership of certain knives over 15cm in length.

Akihabara assault

News is just coming out about some sort of assault by a man in Akihabara. At least 14 people are injured. It happened about an hour ago, just after 1pm and TV stations are now broadcasting live coverage. Reportedly, it was a guy 25 or older who came by truck and attacked people with a survival knife.

6:06PM. Six people are reported to have been with 12 more injured. The thing that killed and injured them came from Shizuoka with the express purpose of killing a number of people. The government and media reaction will be interesting as this kind of thing seems to be becoming more and more frequent, with the emphasis on "seems to be." Could one defend him/herself? Not likely. Fighting a nut with a knife with one's bare hands is usually a losing scenario except in the movies.

7:20PM. Seven have now died. One of those stabbed was a police officer. The "man" who did this had driven a truck at high speed through the street near Akihabara JR station which is closed to traffic on Sundays and ran down a number of people. It then got out of the truck and began stabbing people. After stabbing a number, the thing then fled down an ally where after stabbing 2-3 more, a police officer confronted him. Apparently, the police officer initially used his nightstick to defend himself before pulling his revolver and informing the thing that he would shoot it if it did not cease. The creature, who later told police that he was out to kill anyone because he was tired of living and wanted to die, suddenly decided that his own death did not seem so attractive after all and meekly surrendered.

According to NHK, this was the worst of 67 indiscriminate killing incidents over the last ten years.

I wanna say give him the rope

But I am not such a big proponent of the death penalty anymore.

In addition to killing a man, this murderer has done damage to the image of the military and the US among many (and not only Japanese) in Japan. He was already AWOL before he stabbed a man to death. Obviously, he was less than representative of anything other than a crook even before he killed. Oh please, let's not hear about some childhood issue that makes this all understandable.

The sailor suspected of murdering a cab driver has confessed to U.S. military investigators. Now a confession does not mean someone is actually guilty unless evidence supports the confession and the investigators followed the law during the investigation. (5 April: under US law, not necessarily Japanese law) He has not been convicted yet. So I am taking a leap in saying that he is a murdering sleazeball. I will have to add the word "alleged."

Article here.

The sailor suspected of murdering a cab driver has reportedly (or is rumored to have) kinda confessed to the crime to friends. So far, there has been no confirmation that he has confessed to military investigators. The Japanese police are expected to question him soon.

If he did kill the cab driver, let's hope he enjoys the rest of his life in prison, which he would very much deserve.

I have no evidence but am just speculating: Some branches of the military have had to reduce recruiting standards because most Americans are unwilling to take a personal risk in the fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. Could this be having a negative effect? We can bet it ain't having an overall positive effect.

There will always be a certain number of criminals who get into the military, but there is a price to pay when standards are lowered in any field.

Story here.

Lindsay Hawker's family has returned to Japan to try to nudge the investigation into their daughter's murder by Tatsuya Ichihashi.

Although the murderer has not been caught, things have changed since Lucy (Lucie?) Blackman was murdered. In that case, it took a personal plea from Tony Blair to former Prime Minister Koizumi to force the police to get serious about solving the case. Unfortunately, the man accused of killing her avoided conviction in court. Not enough proper evidence said the court. I assume that the police are serious this time especially since Ms. Hawker's form of employment was more...acceptable?

Meanwhile, in a case which has been barely mentioned in the media, Scott Tucker's killer is expected to receive leniency for that homicide in Tokyo.

Another member of the US military is under some suspicion of a major crime in Japan. This time, a cab driver was murdered and a credit card belonging to an AWOL sailer was discovered in the cab.

When I first heard this Friday night, I thought not again. As of yet, he has not been charged with the crime. (The US has found him and took him into custody.)

I, like many non-Japanese (and some Japanese) who have lived here for a while, tend to be sensitive to these types of things as we know that the media and politicians will sensationalize it and imply that foreigners have some kind of criminal tendencies. In this case, I thought that it was very convenient to find a credit card belonging to someone in the U.S. military. It proves nothing at all by itself. It may no more than show that this guy forgot or lost his card in the cab. In cases like this, I can appreciate SOFA.

We don't know if the guy is connected or not. I hope not, though to the murdered cab driver it won't make much difference. The best we can hope for him and his family and society (Japanese and non-Japanese in Japan) is that the real killer is caught and punished.

But there are a lot of questions. MTC of the political blog Shisaku ponders some of them here and here.

It was a nice day until

I went to debito.org. There I found an entry on a story that I had read in the Japan Times last week.

It seems that a wealthy U.S. citizen lost his life to homicide in a bar in Tokyo. His killer is reportedly expected to get a light sentence because after a thorough, professional investigation by the Tokyo police, it was discovered that the foreigner was being troublesome.

Now I don't know the true details of the homicide, so I can't really say whether or not the killer deserves a harsh or lenient sentence. Friends of the deceased---both American and Japanese---seemed to be shocked by the whole thing.

But the thing I do wonder about is: Why has this not been all over the TV and in newspapers since it happened? Why was there not endless, sensational, emotional coverage? A cynic might claim that there are double standards here. Perhaps even pure hypocrisy. Perhaps open discrimination. Or it could be because so many non-Japanese are killed by Japanese that it isn't news while a Japanese citizen being killed by a non-Japanese is rare and therefore is news.

Me, I don't know. I am confused. I know non-Japanese are generally the ones at fault in any confrontation. Just watch TV programs or even ads. Or ask someone here. But still....

Oh, the debito.org article is here with the Japan Times reports as well as the victim's (Scott Tucker) hometown newspaper report. Ask around. See how many people are aware of this and then ask why they think that coverage has been so sparse compared to what one could expect had a wealthy Japanese been killed by a non-Japanese. Or by a member of the U.S. military.

Another Innocent Victim of sneaky foreingers?

A guy suspected of murdering his wife in 1981 in L.A. was arrested in Guam and faces extradition to the US. He had been previously convicted of attempted murder in the case in Japan as I understand it, but acquitted of murder. (She was shot in the head and him in the leg while they were supposedly taking photos of a parking lot!)

His defense attorneys and some others on news programs are expressing out rage the the US would arrest a guy acquitted of murder in Japan. Unfortunately, these lawyers seem to know nothing about the law, or else they are just trying to baffle folks with bull.

The murder was in the US. US law was violated. There is no statute of limitations in the US for murder (unlike in Japan). Just because the people involved were Japanese does not mean that the US has no jurisdiction in this case. Japan actually is the one with no jurisdiction. (Most programs that I have seen have someone who has a clue at the very end of the piece explaining why this guy is being arrested now and some of the background and likely new evidence in the case.

This seems to be big news as it has been all over TV for 2 days. Not really sure why, but it was a big story when it happened too.The Japan Times article is here.

Fatherly love and crooked cops

More on the murder of young sumo wrestler by his stable master and fellow wrestlers:

(Stable master) Yamamoto publicly denied striking Saito inappropriately, though he did admit to striking him on the head with a beer bottle during dinner that day. He told reporters shortly after Saito's death, "This was an ordinary practice. How could you think I would do anything to hurt someone I consider my child?"

The sloppy, sleazy, investigation by what passes for law enforcement officers:

Initially, the boy's death was listed as "ischemic heart failure", until his family viewed his body. They say his body was covered in bruises, cuts and burns. They begged police to open an investigation, believing he'd been punished for trying to flee the stable.

They overlooked the severe bruising as the stable master claimed it was a normal result of training. Of course! And a beer bottle upside the head is just tough love by a gentle sadist---oops I meant father. Full article here.

The father made a curious statement:

"I do understand that the master's orders are absolute, so maybe they couldn't help it, but if they had reconsidered, this would not have happened."

The above is the English translation from JT Online and it is the second time I have seen it. Perhaps this is un-Japanese of me, but even though they were kids (17 or so) I would assume that they should have some basic knowledge of right and wrong. Then again, maybe this is normal in the sumo world. Come to think of it, it's like Fujiwara's perfect government. An elite tells you what to do and you do it. Your only right is to complain, but you still do it. Bushido?