Youth Violence in Japan

I used to get the Japan Today newsletter and it seemed every other day there was some report of a girl being found dead and killed by a classmate or
some violence breaking out in a school the whole kid severing his mom's head thing.

I also hear how common bullying is in Japanese schools and how teachers almost encorage it.

I wouldn't say it's worse in Japan than it is here in the US I assume most violence among teens in this country never makes the news.

But alot of Japanophiles in this country think Japan is the great land of Milk and honey or Wasabi and Miso or something. Yet just becuase they have strict gun laws doesn't mean it's crime free.

But since there are people here that live in Japan I was wondering if you could comment on that.

 

Every other day??? More like a few times a year.

Elementary schools have no more or maybe less than your average British elementary school. Can't say for any other country. The Teachers in no way support bullying either. There are schools for basically shit heads which of course will have bullying problems but theses are a special case.

No, Japan isn't crime free by any means but compared to the US it's like a crime free zone. Shit like that Craigslist thing that happened the other days just wouldn't happen here. Yeah, there's petty crime and arse holes, god shites, twats, little shits or what ever you want to call them but they are clearly in the minority. I complain about shit all the time in Japan so I'm certainly no Japanophile but what I can't stand is people trying to make it worse than it actually is. 22 years living in the UK and I saw plenty of shit from old people getting mugged, pissed youths beating the shit out of passers by for no reason, a guy lying in a pool of blood (Probably dead), burned out cars and so on. No shooting though :nod: 10 years living in Japan and the worst I've come across is a prick putting a scratch down my missus old car. Needless to say he ended up with a mighty fat lip.

Now saying all that I do live in a smaller city than the likes of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya etc however it's no smaller than Liverpool where I am from.

Yakumo

 

Bullying is pretty much Japan's biggest problem with youth that really needs addressing. The problem isn't that teacher's promote it, it's that they don't actively do anything to stop it. This is where Japan's stereotypical ability to mind their own business can be a problem. 　There was a recent case this year where a principal of a school was aware of a problem, did nothing, and of course, the kid offed himself. Many suicide amongst kids are results from bullying.

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As stated, your chances of being the victim of violent crime here are really, really slim. I'm far more afraid of Earthquakes, and I walk down the darkest of dark alleys at all hours of the night, sometimes incoherent. My wife wants to go to the store at 2AM? I tell her to get me something. In the states... any of them, I have to go with her.

 

the funny thing is, that japanese think themselve japan has a lot of crime. anytime when i'm hearing that, i have to L0L. "uh..dont' walk dpwn this street alone after 10pm" etc... rolf.
what i can say, japan has a lot of perverts of any kind. usually they're just as harmless as a fly. but some of them attack young ladies in night, hold them and grab somewhere around. altough the bodily harm is quite low, the trauma could be so much the higher.
generally, japanese doesn't know any kind of vandalism (yet). there are so many public infrastructures which would be a high target of vandalism in europe or US, but here nothing. something that i appreciate here the most.

 

I never felt unsafe at night when I used to live in Tokyo and I don't feel any different now in Hiroshima even though the amount of crime reports has increased a bit or at least that's the impression I get.

And I still remember the quite large "Chikan ni chuui" ("Beware of perverts") signs they had in a residential area just outside of Tokyo. But that makes me laugh more than anything.

 

That's b/c Japanese are basing it their conception of safe... which is the Japan they've grown up in. If I have to describe the neighborhood I grew up in I would say it's a shit hole, and now crime ridden. Why? B/c you can't even leave your garage door up anymore w/o something getting stolen, and kids don't even walk to school anymore (as witnessed by my parents). Some people would look at it as average neighborhood though.

 

GP - Did you find it hard to get out of that unsafe mindset after leaving the States?


I moved from Baltimore, MD (in city limits alone murder rates that don't go over 300 a year is a good thing - and rare.) to a rural area in Pennsylvania where they don't even install deadbolts on the doors and it's been hard to get accustomed to feeling safe (even though some counties here haven't had a murder reported for something like 100 years).

Just as some background - from wikipedia:
According to crime statistics there were 269 homicides in Baltimore in 2005, giving it the highest homicide rate per 100,000 of all U.S. cities of 250,000 or more population. Though this is significantly lower than the record-high 353 homicides in 1993, the homicide rate in Baltimore is nearly seven times the national rate, six times the rate of New York City, and three times the rate of Los Angeles.

 

Yeah, Baltimore is a shit hole (sorry to dump on your home town). I lived in Austin for 3 years before moving to Tokyo, which is much safer than Dallas, where I grew up. I lived semi-close to campus, so I was kind of used to not looking over my shoulder all the time.

 

Not that anybody cares, probably, but an experience of mine sprang to mind: last March I was given the opportunity to teach in Sudan for one month, and not only did my parents not like it, most of my friends made remarks along the lines of "remember not to get shot".

I found out Khartoum is about the safest place on earth! The place is almost devoid of Westerners, yet I often took walks at night both in the city center and the suburb where I lived (lot of unlit alleys), and the worst I got were begging children, but most of the time just friendly greetings.

Right after I got back I spent a few days in Grenoble (south-east France) and I noticed I was a heck of a lot more scared walking around on the streets at night...

 

Austin sucks (I got sent there for a week by work and hated everything but the food).


Anyways just to add to all this. I am originaly from southern california and had to deal alot with issues of gangs and crime in california (i've had gangs shooting at each other a few streets over form where I lived on multiple occasions).

Since I moved to montreal I have felt extreamly safe. Hell I have no problem walking down many crapy streets alone at 1-2 am after bar hopping with friends. It's insane now much safer it is up here. It's even funny i've walked down side streets at 10pm on my way home from work with coworkers and they complain I should not be walking down thoes streets at night. I laugh it off because it's extreamly safe and there is nobody even down the street.

 

Yeah, live music every night, SXSW, filthy women from SFA University on the weekend, Barton Springs, The Rio Grande down the street on the 4th of July, Town Lake, Peace Park, Mexican Martinis from Trudy's, Good weed, liberal people, a high ranked (and cheap) University, low crime rate, free thinking people right in the middle of the most conservative police state, and as you stated, a restaurant culture that outshines most large cities... Yeah, sucks. Was rated like 2nd best city in the US by CNN a year or so ago. Yeah, I know it's not going to float everyone's boat, but it is like no other city in the states. Obviously you shouldn't rate something after only going a week. Sure, I've never been to Baltimore, but let's face it, there's only one place on the planet worth living that gets that fucking cold: New York City.

Violence is everywhere in America. A cop was killed one block over from my house when I was in High School. This was the white suburbs, FYI.

EDIT: Actually it was Detroit I was thinking about that always sticks out in my mind as a "shithole". Again, never been, but more than a few friends from there who have (surprise!) never gone back. For me though, it still comes down to the ball freezing cold. Not sure why I reacted to Baltimore so strongly (although I can't imagine it being such a nice getaway).

 

There really isn't that much violence where I'm at. There are only three or four instances that I can think of that would classify as 'violent' for the almost 12 years I've been here.

 

I live in a hick town and went to school with a bunch of Gangsta wannabes

The best line I ever heard going to high school was this idiot kid that liked to brag about a sex life he didn't have (none of the guys at my school got any but they all claimed they did)

Ok let me set this up he's talking about Rap music and I live in a Hick town ok ready

"Our parents can't relate to this shit like we can"

Oh really you live in a fucking hick town yeah Drive by shootings related to drug deals happen ALL the time here don't they.

All the wiggas are gone........replaced by EMOs.

Don't get me wrong I love me some Wu Tang but those guys were morons.

 

Where do you live? Obviously certain parts are worse than others. I always considered Austin a safe place... one of the safest major cities out there (mainly b/c everyone was always high). Still, it had it's bad days.

 

Oh, you're talking about violence in major cities... never mind then :lol: When you said violence is everywhere in America, I thought you actually meant EVERYWHERE.

 

I'm just not a fan of texas period. My mother is from ft-worth area and I spent some time there when I was younger and was just bored as hell. I was glad to finaly get back to california.

As for what you said, I live in montreal. Other then the lack of seriously good mexican food (I found a few acceptable places but still no carnitas), we have everything else you listed. Montreal is very liberal, there are tons of hot chicks up here, we have McGill & Concordia university, lots of good weed, good irish pubs, real beer, a night life that does not sleep till 3am (last call up here is 3am not 2am like in most states), In the summer the local theme park host a firework extravigansa featuring fireworks from around the world that is once a week and last 2-3 months (and you can see it near the old port, montreal is an island), Not too far from good moutains for skiing or snowboarding in the winter, blah blah blah. Oh yeah, Other then the seperatist thing, quebec is very liberal.

Oh as for safty, I believe a last year montrael was rated the safest major city in North America (only unsafe stuff recently was the crap at dawson's college, yet even after that canadian media was not jumping to blame movies, video games & music).

 

Well, the cities were inferred. Obviously less densely populated areas have much less crime.

I hate Texas. That, is the beauty of Austin. It's nothing like the surrounding wastelands or cities. I'm from Dallas, which I really don't like at all. The only thing there is my family and some friends left over so I go back regularly. I will admit that going out to bars isn't bad in Dallas in general. Everything else kind of sucks cock. I also hate driving, so yeah, Dallas = bad.

I seriously doubt Montreal has the bar/live music scene Austin does. Then again, nowhere does. But, I can imagine it's probably pretty nice. It's Canada though... not exactly in the cards (for me, anyway). I wouldn't mind living closer to the slopes. There's half decent mountain about 80 minutes train ride from Tokyo. Not bad. You can actually go in the morning and be home by 18:00.

You won't find that anywhere. Most parts of the states have turd Mexican food, too. There's like 2 edible places in Tokyo.... out of a bazillion people.

 

If you want good hispanic food New England is where it's at besides Miami we have a HUGE hispanic population we have all types of hispanic food here even Pourtgeese and Cuban.

we also have a large Italian population so there are tons of those and our chinese resturants are some of the best in the country.

 

I'd be one of those people....

 

I just read this story and it made me think of this thread. 4 teens in Japan were arrested for chopping off the finger of an 18 year old girl.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070609p2a00m0na009000c.html

Apparently it happened back in May - they locked her up in an apartment and basically tortured her (beating her, cutting her hair off, and of course, severing her finger). Why? Apparently she had been spreading rumors about them. :-(

Of course, I can think of tons of similar cases in countries all over the world... some people are just assholes.