I like living in Japan, enough so that I currently intend to live here for as long as I can. It has all (well, most) of the creature comforts of the U.S. and I'm surrounded by people with fundamentally different ways of perceiving and processing world, a constant stimulation. It's a great environment for preventing one from become to rigid or enamored with a particular way of thinking.
All is not paradise in Eden though. Japan still suffers from some serious conservative thinking. There was a big discussion a couple years ago at a Sumo tournament where tradition dictates the Osaka prefectural governor hands the trophy over to the tourney champion. Only problem was that the Osaka governor is a woman, and women aren't allowed on the dohyo, the raised mound of sand that the wrestlers compete on, due to their "impurity." To be fair, society was split on this, but enough people felt that traditions were to be preserved and the exclusion of women from the dohyo was felt to be an important tradition for some reason by a fair number of people. Some wrestlers even stated that they would quit the sport if she stood on the dirt to give this trophy. She eventually stepped out of the way and avoided making a big stink about it, letting the vice-governor hand it over. That really disappointed me, but it was something I could handle.
But two things have happened lately that really have me up in arms. I'll start with the least shocking. Waseda University in Tokyo has just discovered that a group of male students created what has been dubbed a rape circle (circle is used in Japan to describe clubs, like a knitting circle, only they have circles for everything: chess, tennis, manga, anime, mahjong, radio broadcasting, whatever). These guys were part of a party circle that organizes parties, roughly the Japanese equivalent of house parties at colleges in the U.S.
Only these guys would prey on girls. Scout freshman on campus, recruit them to come to the parties, then liquor them up and gang-rape them. It's been going on for a few years now and they just got busted.
This isn't the bad part though. After this happened, a politician, speaking at a news conference with many other people, casually observed that these rapists were genki, which means spunky, cheerful, energetic, full of pep, in good health, etc, and that society needs people like that. When asked to clarify, he didn't catch the nuance in the question that implied that what he was saying was grossly inappropriate.
Encouragingly, the news media and society in general are upset about this, but what pisses me off is that nothing happens. He isn't going to lose his job and will likely win reelection due to the bass-ackwards election system they have here in Japan (I'll explain that later). This type of behavior and these types of attitudes persist with impunity. I suppose that progress is being made, as seen in the criticism in the media, but sheesh. Trent Lott lost his job as Senate leader for a much more innocent comment than that. And this type of mentality among politicians explains a lot with regard to the downward spiral Japan is stuck in.
But the really really really really really messed up thing:
Last week, a 4 year old boy was kidnapped from a store, taken 2 miles away to a parking garage where he was assaulted and then thrown from the roof of the building, whereupon he died. This crime itself was infuriating to me. I typically have low expectations for what humanity is capable of doing, but to throw a baby off a roof... I don't think capital punishment is really worthwhile, but I have a hard time convincing myself that anything you could do to the perpetrator short of killing them wouldn't be acceptable.
Well, yesterday they caught the guy.........and its a 12-year old junior high school kid!!!!. But the real kicker is that under Japanese law, okay, you might want to take a deep breath before reading this, and don't have any coffee in your mouth :
Children under 14 are exempt from criminal law.
That is not a typo. If you are under 14 in Japan, you can't be charged with a crime. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Bash in windows, walk. Spray paint a bus, walk. Kill cats, dogs, and zoo animals, walk. Throw a 4 year old boy off the roof of a carpark after trying to rape him, walk.
Well, he doesn't entirely walk. He may have to go to this special camp for trouble-makers where he has to talk to a counselor. But this is only for a year. Basically he'll get a lecture, and that is it.
More details are still coming to light, but it appears that the kid may also be responsible for a string of child rapes in the area as well a rash of cat and dog murders. It looks like he was trying to rape the 4-year old this time too, but tossed him over the edge when he started crying or screaming.
As if I haven't piled it on enough, lawmakers had to deal with a similar type problem over a murder a while ago. I don't know the details off the top of my head and writing about this got me all worked up again, but essentially some juvenile committed some atrocity but couldn't be punished because kids aren't held to the law. So they talked about changing the laws, and I think all they did was lower the age the laws are applied to by a year or two. But they didn't take the needed step of creating juvenile criminal law, and this kid is going to walk.
Okay, I think I'm doing writing now.
Posted by Nutrimentia at July 10, 2003 11:32 PM | TrackBack