TwistedMac said:
yeah.. no i believe they do these macabre things, probaly just as bad as it seems... but I think the part of not falling into this thing that the columbine kid did may have to do with culture.. maybe there's some cultural "box it up and put it in the back of your head" attitude? =/
There definately is that attitude here. Box it up, keep it in, don't talk about whats going on.
Plus it seems theres some definate flaws going on in upbringing.
Until age 11 some kids in Japan seem to be little hellions. They run rings around their mothers with little discipline. Eg absolute idiocy on the trains, tantrums in stores (worse than what I've seen back home) etc.
Then they hit 11-13 and suddenly have a huge about face pulled on them, with the rental units suddenly demanding they buckle down and study study study.
Theres also been a lot of talk here recently about the lack of father figures in childrens lives. The fathers are so absorbed in their work they have little time for their children. the mothers by the time kids hit 12 are exhausted from full time parenting and half ignore their kids. As long as the kids are getting good grades its a ok for them. Teaching right and wrong, good morals (by Japanese standards might I add) and all that stuff seems to be out of fashion.
May also be a lack of enforcemnt by aprents. A student at my school, Kyoko, is 16. She used to be a really good student, typical slighty geeky Japanese schoolgirl. In recent months she's been of the rails completely. Skips classes, is heading into bleached hair dark tan road, boasts about her 21 year old boyfriend.
Her mother forbade her from going to Machida, saying it was too sleazy and dangerous for a 15 year old girl. She goes anyway. When I asked how she gets there she said her mother drives her there. what? The same mother that forbids her going to Machida is driving her there?
There have been a growing number of stories in Japanese media about whats happening to the Japanese youth and the family unit.