Natural Born Japanese Killers

Natural Born Japanese Killers

Americans and Japanese are both fond of pointing out the difference in crime rates. To many Japanese, America is seen as an outlaw nation, bristling with guns. And for many Americans, the juxtaposition of Japan's often ultra-violent entertainment with their low crime rate is fascinating. Japanese pop culture and crime statistics are often cited to defend American entertainment when it is accused of inspiring violence. But for anyone paying attention, startling crimes have a way of popping up in Japan unexpectedly. There were the "Otaku Murders" of 1988 and 1989, where Tsutomo Miyazaki kidnapped and killed four girls of around five years of age, reenacting gruesome scenes from his hentai collection. The serin gas attack in 1995 is another notable incident in the analogs of Japanese crime history. Perpetrated by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, almost a dozen people were killed during the terrorist attack.

I asked a Japanese friend of mine once, "Are there gangs in Japan?" I've since learned that Japan has a long history of gangs, including everything from high school motorcycle gangs to the Yakuza, but he shook his head. He said there were no gangs, but in Japan sometimes kids just go crazy. He told me the story of a boy who would kill people on the street, discretely, and then hide in an alley to watch the ensuing action. He was eventually caught with the murder weapon near one of his crime scenes. This was several years ago, and I wrote the story off as an urban legend.

Recently, however, there have been several articles published about teenage boys committing gory crimes in Japan. Over the last year there have been multiple incidents. A 65-year old woman in Aichi prefecture was murdered on May 1, 2000. On May 3, a boy in Saga prefecture hijacked a bus with a knife. He held a six-year-old girl hostage, killed one woman, and wounded five others. There have been more crimes, including knivings in people's homes, baseball bat bludgeonings and matricide, budgeonings with hammers, and, just two weeks ago, a 15-year-old boy on Kyushu crept into a house during the night and attacked a family. All six family members were attacked, and three died.

Incidents such as these have been reported in many newspapers and online news sites, but I take the examples above from two articles on the subject. Tim Larimer, a correspondent for Time wrote "Natural-Born