Akihabara...And one more reason to stay clear..

[fifthchamber]

Strange...I passed Akiba yesterday on the way back from Kashima Jingu..Had no idea about any of this, but wow...I don't know what the hell to make of this..But it's one sick event...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080609a1.html

[DDATFUS]

I saw the story this morning. It's shocking, to say the least. I'm rather curious as to what the Japanese media is saying about this. The Japan Times article is very cut-and-dry, as is the article on the Daily Yomiuri website. In the US, we'd have talking heads all over this on the news. Is the Japanese media the same? Are panels of experts already speculating about the assailant's upbringing, his medical condition, the effect the economy is having on crime?

[fifthchamber]

Not particularly...The media coverage is not quite as widespread as in the West..Apart from news reports there is little coverage of the event, although I would expect that the newspapers and weekly magazines have a larger focus on the reasons behind it..

It may also be due to the fact that it happened yesterday and hasn't really sunk in yet perhaps...It's a shock here but certainly not on everyone's lips right now...

We'll see how it pans out I guess...Sadly, the teacher that I spoke to about this earlier today said that he believed that the Japanese have a tendancy to store up so much tension through work, illness, the need to "perform", that when they "blow" they really BLOW...It's not the first time something like this has happened, and it won't be the last sadly...But it sickens me to think about it..

We'll see what the media comes up with over the next few days..

Regards

[DDATFUS]

Thanks for the response, Ben. That comment about how when the Japanese blow they really blow definitely matches what I've seen. You'd think that cram school suicide rates and such would tip people off to a problem; now I wonder if this incident will spark some type of reaction.

I will also be interested in following this tragedy and comparing its coverage to how US media covered, say, the Virginia Tech shooting. Perhaps the Japanese media will display less inclination to roll around in society's excrement than the American media does... that would be a pleasant thought.

[Josh Reyer]

The thing is, this isn't that unusual of an event. By which I mean, in Japan there aren't a lot of armed robberies and the subsequent stabbings/killings. But as a result, when someone goes postal it gets relatively a lot of play, and people have become somewhat desensitized to it. 9 years ago, when I was living in Ikebukuro, in Tokyo, a very similar incident occurred mere blocks from my apartment. A guy in his 20s just started running down the street stabbing random strangers. His reason? "I just wanted to try killing somebody. Anyone was fine."

Recently, the big sensational crime story is the murder of a young, attractive woman by a man who lived in her apartment complex. He killed her, cut her up, and flushed her down the toilet.

Not too long ago, a young man just knocked another man into an oncoming subway. The man was waiting on the platform, and the guy just barrelled into him from behind. The reason? "I just wanted to try killing somebody. Anyone would do."

I don't think its particularly related to cram school pressures and the like. The guys who've done this tend to be unemployed, or employed at part time jobs. They're just broken people who've slipped through the social net.

[DDATFUS]

That's downright chilling. Thanks for the nightmares, Josh.