Ramblings of a Crowe

Crime In Japan

My sister brought up something about Japanese crime over on her blog, and of course, it caught my attention. However, I was unable to post there for some reason or another, so I thought I'd write my own blog over here--since the topic is interesting and all.

Japan is a pretty safe place. Tokyo, for a city of 12 million, has less crime than the big cities here in the US. Usually, you can drop a cell phone or lose a wallet and get it back with everything intact. Pretty cool to us Americans. We usually kiss our stuff goodbye when we lose it. That whole "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers" thing, I guess. You can send you little ones to school with little fear of them being snatched off the street. No worries of being shot in the street. You know, all the things us Americans have come to accept as a fact of life. *ha*

However, is Japan really that safe? There's been a big increase in kids killing each other these days. Violent crime in general seems to be on the rise. The Japanese may not have guns to shoot each other like us Americans, but they don't seem to mind stabbing, strangling, --insert creative way to kill another person here--.

So what's the deal?

If you poll the Japanese, many of them will blame foreign influence and foreigners before they'll blame problems with their own society. You see, Japan is a horribly xenophobic and racist country. In a poll, only 30% of the Japanese believed treating foreigners differently because of their nationality counted as discrimination. 46% believed that the rights of foreigners living in Japan shouldn't be protected at the same level as a native (we won't get into children born 'half'--they don't count as Japanese either). 21% believed that foreigners living in Japan should just accept that they don't deserve the same rights as a Japanese.

Don't get me wrong, my Japanese friends are great, but the country as a whole has a long way to go when it comes to tolerance and acceptance of people who are 'different'. Go read debito.org to find out more about this.

Japan has a conviction rate of 99%. 92% of those arrested or brought in before the prosecutor confess--wouldn't you? There is no right for bail, no right for an attorney until formally charged--and the accused can be held for 23 days without any charges. Plea bargaining and immunity do not exist. There is no jury. Defense attorneys tell their clients to cooperate with the prosecutor. The interrogation, that can go on for hours each day (23 of them remember), is the trial. There is no real judicial process in Japan. You get arrested, you're guilty. Pretty damn scary--and leads to some pretty skewed numbers in the statistics, I'd think.

Then again, perhaps if the US had a judicial system that just slammed the doors in people's faces at the rate McDonalds puts out hamburgers, our crime rate might not be so high. Arrested? Guilty! From what I hear, being a lawyer in Japan is a cushy job that doesn't require much work.

Back to those statistics. I know, I know...that whole saying about 'statistics and lies'--but bear with me a bit.

Pornography, prostitution, sex crimes, etc. Porn is everywhere in Japan. Movies, comics, cartoons, books--there's been many papers written on the desensitation of Japanese men because of exposure to porn (and many opposed to the theory too). I'm too lazy to look it up, but Google it if you wish. But perhaps this is the reason for the Chikan that crawl out of the woodwork during rush hour? Chikan are the perverts who use the seriously crowded trains and buses to grope and molest women. It got so bad that there are trains designated for women only. Thousands of men are arrested for fondling women each year. However, many go uncaught, as many Japanese women prefer to keep silent and endure the humility. It's the Japanese way not to make a scene--and to mind your own business.

So, how many of these crimes go unreported? Not only that, as a fellow on one of the forums I frequent mentioned, his wife was accosted and nearly raped, but managed to get away. When she ran to a police box, the officer there told her, "You're okay, aren't you? Just go home." When he pushed her to go back to the police, she declined, telling him it wouldn't do any good anyway. Eh? I'd write this off as a one time deal, but if you go back through various forums on different sites, you'll find this isn't an uncommon occurrence. (I believe there is a similar story about a break-in at someone's house)

And lets not forget the prostitution and women being held pretty much as sex slaves in Japan (yes, even now). Granted, most of the prostitution and human trafficking is done by Yakuza (Japanese mob). We can't forget about them either.

So exactly how accurate are Japanese crime statistics? Do we really know? How can we trust the numbers if the society doesn't seem interested in dealing with 'real' criminals or reporting crime? How many were told, "Just go home. Forget about it,"? How many didn't want to make a fuss and just kept their head down? How many innocent people were put away by the Japanese judicial system of 'guilty and never even given a chance at being innocent'?

You could ask this about the US judicial system too, I suppose. However, I think there is one major, glaring difference that effects the comparison. Culture. Yes, in the US we have bad cops. We have people who don't report crimes. We have innocent people thrown in jail. But here, in the US, if you raise a big enough stink, someone is going to take note. And that's really the heart of the matter, isn't it? You don't raise a stink in Japan. More people would prefer to just keep quiet and do nothing--even if it means some strange man is groping your ass on a crowded train.

The crimes I've mentioned here are common all over the world. No one has a monopoly on crime. It's everywhere. I have issues with the American judicial system too--the inconsistencies, the loopholes, the speed of the process, etc. However, I'm pretty confident that if I report a crime against me here in the US, the police will at least TRY to help me. And in the unlikely case I'm ever arrested for something, I know I have the right to at least try and prove my innocence. Our system isn't fail-safe, but I'd rather take my chances with the American court system than the Japanese one any day.

Posted by Zoso at December 30, 2005 12:00 AM