Japan compared to America…statistically

From the NationMaster website, I found a long list of interesting statistics comparing Japan and America (any countries can be compared on that website…but since I was born in America and have been living in Japan for more than half of my life, I decided to compare those two countries.)

According to that website:

– America has three times as much crime as Japan,
– America has the world’s highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Japan has the third (was the second highest until China surpassed Japan recently),
– American school classrooms have an average of 18 students per class, and Japan has an average of 35.
– 30% of Americans are considered obese but only 3.2% of Japanese are.
– Japan has a 99% literacy rate, America’s is 86%
– America drinks 10 times as many soft drinks as Japan…but Japan drinks 71% more alcohol than America.

Japan is a comfortable place to live because of the way of thinking

When I first came to Japan in 1990, I was astonished that the Statute of Limitations for murder was fifteen years in this country. That meant that if the police didn’t arrest a murderer within that time, it would be impossible to charge him with the crime…even if he publicly confessed.

I was surprised that this fact wasn’t a concern to the people of Japan.
But, it turned out that it was a concern because the law was finally amended…two years ago.
As of 2010, there is no longer a Statute of Limitations on murder in Japan.

One case in particular was significant in getting this law changed. It was the death of Satoru Kobayashi.

On April 11th, 1996, Satoru Kobayashi was twenty-one years old when he got into a heated argument late at night outside one of downtown Tokyo’s biggest train stations.
The other man hit young Mr. Kobayashi in the head hard enough to cause internal bleeding and, ultimately, his death five days later.

The man who caused Mr. Kobayashi’s death was wanted by the police for charges of “Accidental Manslaughter”.
He was a fugitive and the police had seven years until the Statute of Limitations for those charges would expire.

This case became big news in the Japanese media back then because it’s considered “normal” behavior that someone who gets caught up in a heated (possibly drunken) argument and (hopefully) unintentionally causes injury (or worse) to another person would confess to the police and apologize to the family of the victim.

In Japan, sincere remorse for a crime is vital and has a big effect on a judge’s sentencing.

So, the fact that this man didn’t come forward to apologize and accept his punishment was a concern to the public in Japan.
If the man didn’t apologize and feel remorse, than maybe it wasn’t accidental. Maybe he was dangerous.
The accidental tragic outcome of two people over-reacting in an argument is one thing…but a person attacking (and killing) other people in crowded train stations was quite another.

Japan has a very low crime rate. One factor in this is the Japanese mindset…Japanese people are taught from an early age to consider other people’s feelings before their own.
It makes for a very polite society…even in densely populated areas such as Tokyo.

Due to this case being in the media spotlight and a concern to the public, there was pressure on the police to catch the man who caused Satoru Kobayashi’s death before April 2003 (when the Statute of Limitations would end).

In early 2003, just before the Statute of Limitations would expire, the charges against the fugitive wanted in Mr. Kobayashi’s death were moved up to “Murder”.
The rationale for this was, officially, that since the man was hiding from the police, he must have killed Mr. Kobayashi intentionally…but it might have simply been done to “buy time” for the police to finally catch the man.
As I mentioned, at that time murder had a 15 year Statute…so that gave the police another eight years (until April 2011) to continue their hunt.

In 2010, as the new “deadline” approached, the Japanese government removed the Statute of Limitations on charges of “Murder” completely.
Now, the search for Satoru Kobayashi’s killer can go on indefinitely.

Well, the father of the late Satoru Kobayashi publicly announced yesterday (the 16 year anniversary of his son’s death) that he would like the police to end the search for his son’s killer.

I can’t imagine a parent doing that in another country.
But this is part of the selfless way of thinking here that makes Japan a comfortable place to live.

The elder Mr. Kobayashi said that he has resigned himself to the fact that the man who hit his son will never be found…and it wouldn’t be right for any more police resources to be spent on the search when they could be focused on other cases.

The police replied that since the charges are for murder, which no longer has a Statute of Limitations, they cannot officially end the search…but after the father’s made his wish known, the ¥3 million bounty for the fugitive was withdrawn.

Poor Baikinman

When my kids were young, they used to love a popular Japanese cartoon called 「それいけ！アンパンマン」 (“Go! Anpanman“).

This cartoon is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most characters. A new one is constantly being introduced by the 90-year old artist!
I wrote a post about the world record. Click here to read it.

Anpanman‘s artist, Yanase Takashi, grew up in the city of Kochi, Japan.
Last month, the city decided to honor Mr. Yanase and the characters he created that have become a part of Japanese culture by renaming a street “Yanase Takashi Road” and placing large, stone statues on the street of the cartoon’s six main characters.

Well, late last Sunday, someone destroyed the statue of the cartoon’s main “villain”, 「バイキンマン」 (“Baikinman“).

Baikinman has two antennae on his head. But some cut off one of the statue’s antennae. In Japan, vandalism isn’t very common.

Here’s what the statue used to look like:

And this is what the vandal did to it:

ニュース

Some items I’ve heard on the news recently:

• A woman in her fifties asked a man in his twenties to stop playing a noisy video game on a crowded commuter train in Saitama, Japan.
  At which, he became irate and insulting…and began to punch her in the face!
  He managed to break the woman’s jaw before other commuters restrained him!

• Another man in his twenties pushed a elderly woman off of a train platform in front of an oncoming train at 東京駅 (Tokyo Station).
  She was hit by the train…but luckily the train was already coming to a stop and her injuries weren’t life threatening! The man, of course, is being charged with attempted murder.

• Beginning April 1, 2009, Japan Railway (JR) train stations in Japan will become completely “smoke free“.
  Currently, every station has designated smoking areas…but starting next Wednesday (April 1), every station will be entirely “no smoking”.

• There is a new disturbing current trend among teenagers in America. It’s called “Sëxting“.
  “Sëxting” is the act of teenagers (usually girls) taking photos of themselves n@ked or semi-n@ked with their cell-phone camera and emailing them to friends.

• Toyota (currently the #1 car maker in the world) may be forced to help bail-out America’s “Big 3” car makers (Ford, GM, and Chrysler).

• The American rock band KISS is planning to release their first studio album of new songs in eleven years in September 2009.

Stabbing spree

Yesterday morning (Monday) on the news, they said that on Sunday, a 25 year old man drove a rental truck into a pedestrian-only street in the 秋葉原 (Akihabara electronics district) section of Tokyo to purposely hit people who were walking on the street.

Then he stopped the truck, got out and stabbed seventeen random people, killing 7 of them!

The police caught him and he told them that he was abused by his father during his childhood and he was sick of the world and wanted to kill people…any people.

It’s a tragedy and, luckily, not something that happens often in Japan…although the crime rate has gone up in recent years. But Japan is still one of (if not the) safest countries in the world.

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On a different note…the rainy season has begun in Japan about a week ago.

It’s been raining alot…but today was especially bad! It started out a warm, slightly overcast day and it rained a little bit on and off throughout the day. Just light sprinkling, though.

But then, at about 5:00PM, it started to rain really hard with thunder and lightning!