Japan, crimeless?

[SajberJohan]

Uhm, is it just me or does japanese people seem very un-violent? My apprehension is that the crime rate is very low, even in Tokyo. How the hell!?!? :? Maybe it's the rice that does it...

Are there any japanese people out there who can explain to me why there are so few crimes comitted in your country? Other people are also welcome to explain if you feel like you have a good answer ( or just some goofy theory ^^).

///Johan (writing from a crimefilled city)

 

[PopCulturePooka]

Heres my theory:

You're wrong.

There aren't as many crimes as some cities but like any big city theres still a lot of crime.

 

[okaeri_man]

yeah "crimeless" is going a bit too far. pick up a japanese newspaper and you'll think it's the worst place in the world! primary school girls stabbing other primary school girls with scissors, students getting decapitated, rape after rape, just about every second article is a crime. then of course there's a lot of corruption involving the yakuza which i've heard about, which just gets overlooked.

but then again there's no news like bad news.

in general it's a safe place - but so are a lot of countries.

 

[jieshi]

@okaeri man

i agree! i read the newspapers on-line and the funny thing is, its always yr 6 students who are the ones stabbing others. Quite strange if you ask me I think there is a conspiracy! lol

 

[PaulTB]

Certainly Japan isn't 'crimeless' but don't forget that newspapers don't get paid for producing articles like

"Nothing Much Happened in Shinjuku" or "99.999% of primary school pupils don't kill someone" or even "Man Walks Dog"

You can't get a very good feel for the overall crime rate because newspapers report incidents, not non-incidents.

 

[SajberJohan]

I talked to a friend that's been to Japan recently and she said that even though she was walking alone with an expensive camera exposed at night (and this is in Tokyo) she didn't feel uncomfortable at all and her apprehension also was that there weren't much crime commited and you could feel safe walking alone at night even in a city such as Tokyo.

Now I'm not saying that Tokyo is crimeless, but compared to cities like New York or Los Angeles it is very safe, heck I wouldn't dare walk alone with an expensive camera late at night in my own goddamn neighbourhood!

 

[PopCulturePooka]

I talked to a friend that's been to Japan recently and she said that even though she was walking alone with an expensive camera exposed at night (and this is in Tokyo) she didn't feel uncomfortable at all and her apprehension also was that there weren't much crime commited and you could feel safe walking alone at night even in a city such as Tokyo.

Now I'm not saying that Tokyo is crimeless, but compared to cities like New York or Los Angeles it is very safe, heck I wouldn't dare walk alone with an expensive camera late at night in my own goddamn neighbourhood!

Oh trust me, parts of Tokyo I'd feel unsafe. Kabukicho, Roppongi, areas of Shibuya. They can get pretty seedy.

Granted its not AS dangerous as elsewhere in the world, but you still have to be smart.

 

[jieshi]

I agree with pooka. You always need to keep some sense of security with you.

 

[Kamisama]

Pooka, are the areas you just spoke of controlled by the yakuza?

 

[RinniGal]

violence is everywhere there...it's just overshadowed by school girls and AV stars..
I was at a festival and when i passed a group, they were fine. i passed them again and there was a guy on the ground with blood on him.
things happen there like they happen anywhere else.

 

[SajberJohan]

Maybe he had tripped and fallen on his keys really really bad?

 

[den4]

all you need are wacked out cult groups to help raise the crime rate figures....

will they never learn? the cult is evil....

4 arrested for fatally beating woman in religious training ritual

Thursday, October 21, 2004 at 14:42 JST
TOKYO 窶 Police on Thursday arrested four people on suspicion of causing the death of a 36-year-old woman by beating her in so-called religious training of a group linked to the Aum Shinrikyo cult, the police said.

The four include Yuko Kitazawa, 40, leader of the group called Keroyon, and Masataka Fujibayashi, 35, a former Aum member. They allegedly inflicted fatal injuries on the woman by beating her with a bamboo sword Sept 10 at an apartment in Tokyo's Nakano Ward, according to the police. (Kyodo News)

 

[SajberJohan]

I thought the Aum group didn't exist anymore ( if it's the same Aum group that did the gas thingy at the trains)

 

[Elizabeth]

yeah "crimeless" is going a bit too far. pick up a japanese newspaper and you'll think it's the worst place in the world! primary school girls stabbing other primary school girls with scissors, students getting decapitated, rape after rape, just about every second article is a crime

Rape cases in the paper ? In fact I've rarely seen them. The closest being an occasional "sexual assault" (性的暴行) incident. The majority of reported crimes seem to be domestic or juvenile violence, but then again I mainly read national papers like Asahi or Mainichi and don't necessarily seek out the most salacious sections.

 

[den4]

splinter groups always exist for cults....
the official name is now Aleph, but many still appear to support the former guru of the grotesque....

 

[jieshi]

Did you know that it is rumoured the director of neon genesis evangelion is/was part of the aum cult?

 

[PopCulturePooka]

Did you know that it is rumoured the director of neon genesis evangelion is/was part of the aum cult?

So was the maker of Final Fantasy apparantly.

But I've also heard that rumour started from fundy christians so...

 

[serewen]

Their education system I assume.

 

[SajberJohan]

So in school they learn "crime is bad, don't commit crime!" and that just keeps them from doing it? :? And what about violence in school, is it common with fights :box: and bullying teachers and such, or is that just a screwed up view I've gotten from reading too much manga?

 

[PopCulturePooka]

So in school they learn "crime is bad, don't commit crime!" and that just keeps them from doing it? :? And what about violence in school, is it common with fights :box: and bullying teachers and such, or is that just a screwed up view I've gotten from reading too much manga?

Word in your ear mate:

Manga is NOT the way to learn about Japan.

EVER

 

[Apollo]

There is another thread in this forum which touches upon the subject, also crime and the role of the yakuza:Thread on crime in Japan

 

[RinniGal]

Word in your ear mate:

Manga is NOT the way to learn about Japan.

EVER

hahaha...manga is like gaijin bible..lol
i think that there isnt much in the papers about sexual assault because:
a. it happens so much
b. the girls end up getting paid for it

 

[den4]

manga is like any other medium...it can be educational as well as brain damaging...

I wonder what the Aleph group is up to these days....

then there was that crazy cult group that mummified their members after they died, and still claimed they were living, and refusing to allow the victim to eat....

then there was the one nicknamed the White Brigade, because they clothed themselves with White, covered everything in white, claimed that a seal (Tama-chan) was their savior to fight against the asteroid that was going to destroy the earth....and their leader, this scary looking woman, was on death's door, dying, yet miraculously always managing to postpone her own death for the next forecasting of doom....with her accuracy at future forecasting, even the local weathermen or women have a better ratio at hitting their forecasting target

people are weird....

 

[SajberJohan]

...people are weird....

...and japanese people are REALLY weird

 

[december]

Japan? Crimeless? Far from it, my dear. The crime rate isn't as high as compared to the US, true enough. But it still happens. And also, juvenile crimes have gone up in Japan - in fact, it went up so much that Japan was forced to lower the age when a child can be tried as an adult from 16 to 14. And sexual assault does happen quite often. In fact, in Japan, there are signs up to warn women to beware of chikan - men who get off on touching women during the times when the train are crowded. And some celebrity (he wasn't all that popular anymore) was also arrested about a month or two ago for sexually molesting a high school girl. So nope, Japan is not crimeless.