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DUSK OVER
JAPAN
When crime is blamed on the
victim
By Katsuo Hiizumi
We
Japanese are proud of our low violent-crime rate:
one-fifth the number of murders per 100,000 population
as in the United States, one-eighteenth the number of
rapes, one-twelfth the number of serious assaults,
one-thirtieth the number of armed robberies.
That's still too much criminal violence. But
what worries me more is that it's been rising a lot in
recent years, especially among juveniles; that so-called
minor crimes are way up; and that our attitude to that
is to make stupid excuses, to blame "society" - in other
words, to blame the victims.
Last February a
schoolboy was seen shoplifting at a small second-hand
bookstore in a town on the outskirts of Tokyo. Having
caught the kid, the store owner called the police. When
the police were about to question the boy, he suddenly
started to run. He was chased by the police and went
into a railroad crossing whose gates were closed. He was
hit by a train and died at once.
That's tragic,
but otherwise a straightforward sequence of events. But
things quickly took a strange turn. As soon as the media
reported the incident, the store owner was subjected to
widespread public condemnation, being blamed for calling
the police about this kind of petty crime as well as for
the kid's death. So, shoplifting is not a crime, but
calling the police is?
The store owner became
very upset and decided to close the store temporarily in
order to get away from all the trouble. After that came
another strange turn. Much to the shopowner's surprise,
people began encouraging him to reopen and get back to
normal, telling him, "Yes, yes, shoplifting is
definitely a crime. Calling the police was absolutely
right. Don't close your business." So he installed
closed-circuit TV to deter shoplifters and reopened.
In mid-June, the media reported that he had
closed down his store again. Shoplifting in the store
had not stopped. The man witnessed many incidents, but
was simply not brave enough to face the perpetrators and
call the police because of all that had happened before.
The store became known as shoplifter-friendly. It had to
be shut down for good.
At present, the most
worrying issue for bookstores in Japan has nothing to do
with declining sales and the loss of profit caused by
the recession. Shoplifting, mostly committed by young
schoolkids, is the most serious problem. Big bookstores
in Tokyo are suffering losses from this crime worth
several hundred million yen a year. On average, about
2.5 million yen (US$21,250) worth of books are stolen
per large store per year.
What do schoolkids
steal? Comic books. We Japanese love and are proud of
our comic strips - the world's best - and we probably
produce more of that stuff than the rest of the world
combined. But why do kids steal them? Japan has been in
economic recession for years, but not many people really
suffer as a result of it. Parents give their children
enough spending money. But why spend it on comic books
if you can easily steal them and the store owners get
blamed when they call the police? Indeed, why not turn
the whole thing into a lucrative little side business?
Many high-school students now sell the stolen books to
others or even to adults who ask no questions.
This sort of the youth crime has now become a
center of public attention. And naturally, all sorts of
education and juvenile-crime specialists are making
their appearance in the media to explain it. Japanese
society is hopeless for kids, they say; it damages them,
they are the victims. Society is to blame for such
crimes. And it is, if it adopts that attitude.
The crime statistics above (from Interpol) are
for 2001. Compared with 1995, murders in Japan have gone
up 5 percent, rapes 48 percent, serious assaults 94
percent, armed robberies 205 percent. Cases of "minor
theft" increased by 52 percent between 1995 and 2001.
Criminologists say that toleration of minor crime drives
major crime. That's what we see in Japan today - with
juvenile crime in the lead. And the violent crime trend
in Japan is in the opposite direction as in the US: ours
is up 95 percent, the United States' down 20 percent.
Katsuo Hiizumi teaches modern East
Asian history with special reference to China and
overseas Chinese at Aichi Prefectural University,
Nagoya. From 1983-85 and from 1988-92, he served in
Bangkok as a special assistant to the Japanese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. His publications include Kakyo
Konekushon (The Overseas Chinese Connection), Kyogeki to
Chugokujin (Peking Opera and Chinese), and The
Past and Present of Chinese Economic Area.
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