Crime on Nanikore

The Words of Noda

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 03:49:40 +0000

I don’t usually stray into the world of politics on this blog, it’s [hopefully] meant to be informative and constructive, rather than a critique of the national political psyche. Japan’s political system is as odd as most other countries, still being based on political families and dynasties and a reliance more on yelling people’s names during campaign times than actually discussing issues.

The current Prime Minister is called Yoshihiko Noda, who replaced Naoto Kan, the man who saw Japan through last year’s quake and the immediate response to it, and was thus summarily fired, likely due to saying and supporting some fairly straight things about TEPCO and their supporters, which didn’t go down well with the Old Men, meaning Japan was back to lacklustre suits, spouting the same old stuff and not trying to fix 20 years of stagnation, and the world’s largest public debt.

Yes, I know Greece is exciting and all that, but for sheer number of zeroes, Japan has long been up there (228% of GDP, at $10.5tn.).

Anyway, getting to the point, over the last month, I couldn’t help notice Noda has come out with a couple of interesting soundbites which in a short space of time which seem to completely contradict each other within the same story - here’s a quick one about Japan’s recent execution of 3 prisoners:

“I have no plans to do away with the death penalty,” Mr Noda said, according to the Kyodo news agency.

“Taking into consideration a situation where the number of heinous crimes has not decreased, I find it difficult to abolish the death penalty immediately,” Mr Noda said.

So, you’re keeping it even though it has been proven in your country (as most others) to have no effect whatsoever on the number of murders etc.? Does that make sense? Many foreigners (and some Japanese) are surprised at the fact Japan has the death penalty, and how it is used (Amnesty International have major issues not just with the killing, but with how it is conducted - even more so than in other nations).

Another one I saw from him was discussing tax increases to deal with the aforementioned epic national debt - on January 24th 2012:

“The current system, if unchanged, will put an unbearable burden on future generations. We don’t have time left to postpone reforms,” Mr Noda told parliament.

Wow. Then three weeks later:

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in an online message after the cabinet’s vote, said Japan had “no time to spare” in reducing its debts.

He added: “Some of you may think you are an unlucky generation which needs to support many elderly people - but those who built the current affluent society are the senior generation - your parents’ generation.”

I’m not understanding this statement. The country is massively in debt, has had 20 years of stagnation, and the youth are told to just deal with it (like they have a choice) and be appreciative of the affluent society their seniors built? How can you claim to be affluent and massively in debt? Their parents built the bubble, not affluence - perhaps the generation before that had built affluence?

Anyway, these stories aren’t at all surprising - the level of denial in Japan is what sustains its institutions it seems, but it was fun to see simple, basic contradictions so close together.

That said, Noda seems to just be confused when he speaks, whereas if you want to see the Shogun of great political quotes, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has him beaten.

Sakakibara and the Pelago Theory

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 10:30:37 +0000

Many years ago, in fact in around 1997, I somehow stumbled upon a website called pelago.com, a play on ‘archipelago’, being based around stories and events in Japan. Don’t go there now - it’s currently a software company site, unless you want that instead. I vaguely remember reading a few of its issues whilst I was on the JET Programme at that time.

However, in 1997, it was purported to be written by former reporters of various papers (such as the Japan Times Weekly) who were let go or similar for trying to publish the truth as they saw it, or at least, unpopular ideas or takes on that truth.

I remember looking for the site again a few years ago but it was long gone, though I was able to gather a few bits from the WayBack machine, which had entries from April and December 1997.

Hang on, why am I even looking at this now in 2011? The name Jun Hase to be exact; someone mentioned the name at work a few weeks ago and it reminded me that that was one of the stories the original Pelago team had laboured over in its original incarnation, and was the biggest story at the time, which happened shortly after I came over to Japan the first time.

The crime itself was particularly grisly, with an 11 year old child’s head, that of Jun Hase, found at the school gates, a note inserted into the mouth - a crime not often seen anywhere in the world and certainly not in Japan before or since. It outraged and scared the whole nation, placing a brief focus on the stressed world of some school children. The name ‘ Seito Sakakibara’ became a national watchword for this new type of evil in Japan, as the alias of the apparent killer used in the note, a 14 year old. (‘Sakakibara’ also apparently killed another child - a 10 year old girl).

Pelago’s contention was that the (then) child convicted couldn’t possibly have done it, or at least certainly not alone. They wondered why an accomplice wasn’t being sought, despite a person having been seen by witnesses. What happened to him/her? From Pelago’s piece:

“…the police report was met with skepticism from many journalists, for several reasons. The suspect could not have driven any of the three vehicles linked to the crime. Therefore, the police concluded he lured Hase into the telecommunications complex, where he strangled and decapitated him. But no blood was found on Hase’s body, head, clothes or in the ground – Hase had to be killed elsewhere and his body was carried uphill to the complex. Yet there were no signs of the body being dragged along the ground. Plus, Hase was strangled with one hand – quite a feat for a teenager. Plus, several witnesses recalled seeing a large man, about 160 lbs, between the ages of 20 and 40. Finally, the complex kanji and grammar in the letter were too advanced for a junior high student.”

Pelago.com

They covered a lot of other stories too, forwarding theories which I remember at the time were considered a bit outside the mainstream such as their coverage of the Aum Shinrikyo - and these weren’t that far out there either - Aum’s links in Russia and to the Japanese government were well known, if not widely reported.

The about page for the old pelago.com lists three main contributors/editors: Yoichi Clark Shimatsu, Masanori Tabata and Philip Cunningham. I wonder if the Philip Cunningham is this one. I should really e-mail him and find out. A quick search on the others reveals a fairly extensive resumes for journalism.

So I wonder, what happened to Pelago? Did anything come out of any of the pieces they wrote after the fact, and was anything done about them? Were they really journalists forced out of a journalistic requirement in Japan which prefers regurgitating the edicts of press clubs, or were they disgruntled former employees, pushed out for being crackpots?

I’ll update if I find anything.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

TokyoTom — 2011-04-15

Graham, I found your post while looking for more by Shimatsu, who’s been writing on Fukushima.

FYI: http://www.alternet.org/story/150212/japan's_tsunami:_human_failings,_not_nature's_power,_are_the_real_calamity http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/04/08/japans-elite-hiding-weapons-program-inside-nuclear-plants http://twitter.com/#!/Tokyo_Tom/status/58812669163077632

gurahamu — 2011-04-20

Thanks TT - Interesting reading in those links. Phil C. never replied to my e-mails, so not sure what he’s doing now. Would be interested in having a chat with either of them about their experiences in the Japanese media.

Gaijin Hanzai Informative Magazine

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:06:04 +0000

You’ve probably seen this do - Gaijin Hanzai Informative Magazine. There just aren’t enough superlatives to describe just how awful we foreigners are apparently. Well, I say ‘we’, but apparently no Europeans or North Americans commit crime … just the rest of them. Pages here, here and here.

" Gaijin Hanzai Ura File" as the book is known, may well still be available from such hard core right wing establishments as…er…Family Mart.

All in all, it’s just an odd situation, with these fairly normal shops having to apologise and get it off their shelves to save a bit of bad publicity.

This blog is not really the place for me to go into the ‘race issue’ in Japan, or even my own experiences, and though I would say Japan has an inclination to legalised, institutional racism, I wouldn’t say it’s (personally, physically) dangerous, and I don’t think these people represent even a tiny, if vocal, percentage of the population. That said, some foreigners have committed crimes, and I’m not talking about visa overstays either. However, by far, most crime is committed by Japanese, even by percentage.

Overall summary: kind of sad this book can be published in 2007 in what is a very enjoyable place to live.

Gaijin Legal Rights

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:33:46 +0000

The JET Alumnai association has a pretty concise legal page dealing with the rights of foreigners when dealing with issues of identity checks and other dealings with businesses and official concearned with ‘security’. It’s an interesting read, and was presented in the Japan Times, written by activist Debito Arudou, whose own homepage. Take a look at that too.

Murder month?

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 19:45:12 +0000

It been a difficult few weeks in Japan, with some very tragic events unfolding. Murders occur all over the world, and to be honest, murders in different countries to tend to vary slightly given the host country, and unfortunately the last couple of weeks have seen a few very pointless and grizzly crimes. Japan is rightly not known for it’s violent crime - especially outside of it’s ‘criminal underworld’, and often, sadly, these stories just pass us by, but a few stories this week just seemed to pile up and made me wonder how deep the problem is. And just what the problem is.

The first was the cold killing of a schoolgirl allegedly over something written on a website - the girl simply slashed the other girl’s throat and let her bleed to death. [ BBC, Reuters].

Next came the drawn out task of identifying a body found near rice fields in Ibaraki Prefecture. Again, this turned out to be a young woman, but the murderer has yet to be found. [ Japan Today]. In this case a foreigner has been questioned, but it’s not thought he was involved. This is only relevant as the media here like to push the idea that most crimes are committed by foreigners, when the Police’s own statistics show that they’re not (with the exception of work permit violations). In this case, the Police seem to have little to go on.

The final case was an attempted murder, and was probably the most bizarre - a Railway employee was shot in the stomach by a mystery gunman, who then grabbed the bag he was carrying and made his getaway. What’s odd about this is that it happened at 8.45am, in the Den-en Toshi Line ticket machine area of Shibuya station. For those who don’t know, this is probably one of the busiest underground stations in Tokyo - even at 8.45, it would have been packed. I know this because I pass through that station every day, and was there about an hour before it happened. ‘Fortunately’ reports say the victim will recover, and the gunman actually stole the man’s toiletry bag. The theory is that he was actually hoping to steal ticket machine takings, which would allegedly run into hundreds of millions of yen. [ Mainichi]

The reason I’m writing this post is that I thought this recent rate was fairly unusual. Really. Anyone who has lived in Japan for any length of time will tell you that it’s the safest place they’ve ever lived. I’ve lived in some pretty bad places in Tokyo, and yet never felt safer. However, I do know violent crime happens a lot here - and Japan does have some of the world’s most gruesome and yet seemingly unmotivated murders (though virtually no serial murderers).

“Is Japan changing?”

No, not really, or at least, not in this sphere. I think these reports are just finding their way into the media a little more. I know many people are concerned that the Police are virtually ineffective unless they find a smoking gun, but that too doesn’t reflect the fairly pacifist society here. Many of the normal police from the Koban (policeboxes) are just not equipped to deal with anything more serious than a stolen bicycle or a drunken argument. Ask them.

It’s just that when people snap here, they tend to…snap, as in there is reportedly very little ‘meltdown’ time, just a rapid deterioration. In looking for references for this post via my usual Google News I was saddened by the level of violent attacks in Japan recently, including a double murder in Saitama [ Mainichi]. It’s sad because I know this is still a lot less than other countries. Given the number of humans who live in very close proximity to each other here, it’s in some way surprising that the rate of reported violent crime is as low as it is.

I’m not quite sure what the bottom line for this post is other than to wish the victims families whatever consolation there is, and hope that some form of justice is administered. If anyone has any theories, let me know.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

dr Dave — 2004-06-30

In Japan’s case, much as for any society in general, the old “there are more crimes nowadays than in the past” thesis (and all variations on the theme) is most of the time completely torn apart by stats and careful analysis. Most sociologists explain the increasing feeling of insecurity and crime awareness by the exponential increase in communication and media propagation with each passing decade. In less that a hundred years, we’ve gone from a situation where the most grisly murder would barely make it out of the village where they took place (and where they would usually be added to the local folklore and mythology) to a point where any violent crime, provided it offers some kind of media value, can be propagated through the whole world. And even when sticking to a single country, like Japan, it’s pretty obvious the media do a damn good job in Japan of raising feelings of insecurity to new heights, since as we all know, sex and violence are the best way to sell your TV programs, and the former would not fly that well with their viewership: mostly elderly women.

I don’t think Japan is a traditionally non-violent society, its history definitely doesn’t go in that direction, but I would venture the opinion that modern Japanese society, though somewhat westernized, still has a very strong sense of traditional values such as integrity and honor. Which is why nobody seems to care very much when yakuzas kill each other in some obscure matter of power and honor. But it’s a drama and a national shame when an obachan gets pushed around by somebody who is after the content of her purse (even if such crimes are more seldom than earthquakes).

If you stick on top of all that, rampant xenophobic theories on the evil gaijin preying on innocent Japanese people, easily fueled by the admittedly poorer manners and lack of civic sense displayed by most foreigner (which doesn’t make them bloodthirsty beast either)… you get a national press where 20% is dedicated to whatever item of world news that can somehow be tied to Japan’s policies and 80% of tedious man-bites-dog ranting, peppered whenever possible by the priceless “Although no firm evidence has been established yet. Police has been rounding foreigner just in case for routine interrogation.”, ‘cause you never know with these people, you know…

So, I really do not think crime rates in Japan are anything like what the newspapers like to present… certainly not perfect, but far from an end-of-the-world-in-the-coming, and not the most pressing issue with Japanese society, imho. sorry for the length, but this is a question I see raised all the times, and seeing the list of cases you presented gave me some inspiration.