Psychotic Freaks in Japan

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:30:12 -0400 by Bull

The following is a news story that came along the AP wire about crime in Japan.

Ahhh! Japan! (officially 日本国 Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku) That nation and her people have always been a favorite of The Bull’s. Particularly of interest later in life has been the Okinawa Prefecture. (沖縄県, Okinawa-ken) Originally not part of Japan, but more on that at a later date.

On to the news story…

TOKYO — A teenage boy carrying a severed head walked into a Japanese police station Tuesday saying he killed his mother, the latest in a series of grisly dismemberments that have horrified a nation renowned for its low crime rates.

A remarkably low crime rate for a nation with some 128,085,000, (2005 estimate), souls packed onto 377,873 km². In other words, Japan has the 10th largest population on the planet, but is the 62nd in size. To further compress the population, about 70% to 80% of the country is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use. That makes for a tight squeeze in anyones book! Somehow though, be it the believe both Shinto (the indigenous religion of Japan) and Buddhism or mere common courtesy, the Japanese have developed into the second largest economy on the planet while maintaining one of the lowest crime rates. All despite the over-crowding.

The 17-year-old suspect led officers to his house in northern Fukushima prefecture (state) and pointed out his headless mother on her futon mattress, with a frank, “It’s in here,” Kyodo News reported. He told police he beheaded his mother on the eve of her 47th birthday while she slept, and added, “It didn’t matter who I killed,” Kyodo reported. Police confirmed the arrest.

While dismemberment crimes are not unique to Japan, experts say such cases are on the rise as Japan grapples with the fallout of a decade of economic malaise. Alienation and a trend toward objectifying fellow humans is also fueling the violence. “There have been a high number of incidents involving dismembered bodies and I certainly think there is a chain reaction going on,” said Susumu Oda, an expert in criminal psychology at Japan’s Tezukayamagakuin University.

A “chain reaction”? Hmm… Let The Bull look deeper into this story.
The AP news story list four such dismemberment cases in the last two years and one from 1997. The Bull has not been able to find reference to any others. That is not to say that there aren’t others, just that I couldn’t find reference to them. Frankly, more people are killed in this country every year from animals that are not even native to this continent! Hardly a “chain reaction”. While the Japanese economy isn’t growing at the rate it has ever since WWII, the Japanese people should stop and look at all they have accomplished and where they stand on the World Stage and be proud.

There is a little bit of “Liberal-think” going on over there too. Also a profound pain among many for the atrocities committed during the war. Atrocities, both large and small, occurred on every front of that - and every - war. Yes, the Japanese military was guilty of many of the very worst. Let us - and especially the fine Japanese people - remember that while we should never forget our past, we should also not place the burden of blame upon the shoulders of those that were not involved or succeeding generations.

While such gruesome killings have outraged the nation, some experts caution that the dismembering of victims is not always a symptom of deeper social dysfunction. “In many cases, they killed in a desperate situation and carried or hid the body by dismembering it to avoid being caught for homicide,” said Yoshikazu Yuuma, expert in criminal psychology at Saitama Institute of Technology outside Tokyo.

That the entire nation is outraged by such crimes when they occur is, in The Bull’s mind at least, a very good sign that the Japanese have a very healthy outlook on crime and definitely not a “social dysfunction”. On that last sentence in the quote above: Exactly! Would it be ‘normal’ for someone who has committed murder to go an announce such in the streets? Of course not, you silly AP writer! ‘Tis human nature to hide that which we are most ashamed of or that which will end our freedom.

Bottom line still remains that Japan has a very low crime rate, a remarkably low homicide rate, and an unbelievably low rate of psychotic freaks in their population. Perhaps we should ALL eat more fish and converting to Shinto and Buddhism!