Status Updates From True Crime Japan: Thieves, ...

I am enjoying this, learning about a side of Japanese culture I know very little about!

This book was not what I expected, and then chapter 4 took off again and it was unexpected all over again. From the mundane to the horrible, this books takes a look at different cases from a small (240 000 people so all things relative) city in Japan and uses them to talk about how society ticks.

Crimes involving perversion appear disproportionately common on Japan. Even in the courtroom of a small rural city like Matsumoto, roughly one in 12 of the cases I observed has some element of perversion, including groping, theft of ladies' underwear, child pornography, and child prostitution, not to mention the fecal fascinations of Mr. Horiike.

The national police agency annual report for 2012 records arrests relating to only two cases of politically motivated attacks on property involving rightists. In one case, a disaffected rightist drove a. Ar into the social democratic. Party's headquarters in Tokyo; in another, a brick was thrown at the South Korean Consulate in Hiroshima, causing minor damage.

Police often arrest by appointment; a warrant is issued and the person shows up at the appointed date. It's all very civilized.

Police often arrest by appointment (!!!!)

250 pages statement from a business man who confessed to fondling a girl on a train; nearly 500 pages from two juvies suspected of vandalizing several vending machines; over 1200 pages of statements from and about a seventy yo man who denied attempting to steal four books from a bookstore.

神经病！

Japan doesn’t appreciate pot stirrers. The Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks up is hammered down “ is often used to describe how society deals with those being awkward by seeking change. Virtually every organ of the Japanese state disdains those who make waves; probably none more so than those who run the prisons.