This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

Crime Saitama: 86-year-old shoots at hospital and takes hostages

thomas

Unswerving cyclist
Admin
Joined
14 Mar 2002
Messages
21,057
Reaction score
18,914
Ageing Japan: a disgruntled 86-year-old man holding a grudge against a Saitama postal worker shoots at a hospital and then takes hostages at the PO.



 
Japan's first case of someone "going postal".
It is a cliche now in the States. Everyone immediately understands the phrase "going postal". Usually it is a case of a disgruntled post office worker going berserk. I think it may be an increasing feature of Japan, where older (usually male) patrons take out their rage and frustration at the modern world, by creating havoc in places where they are/were used to being treated with some deference. I mean, in rural Japan, everyone knows everyone, and I think it was fairly easy for old guys to live their lives and collect their pensions and pay for whatever services they needed. Nowadays, with the ever-increasing reliance on technology and smart phones and passwords and QR codes and 2F identification, etc... older people are at a big disadvantage. I sense some old dudes will snap, and do something completely inappropriate like try to take over a local post office.
 
That's some genki 86-year-old!

I think "going postal" is from our generation. Probably the post-Columbine generation hasn't heard about violence in post offices or would know this phrase. Their frame of reference would mostly be schools. But no equivalent phrase like "Going Columbine" has entered the zeitgeist.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…