1.12.2004
Breaking rule #1
There was another attack on school children in Kansai last week (after two last month), this last one was a stone's throw from me.
Meanwhile I still frequently get the comment that America is dangerous (the movie Bowling for Columbine didn't help). My sneaking suspicion is that it's six of one half a dozen of the other. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of violence in Japan, although the stuff that gets reported in English is pretty much of the weird fringe variety because there's such a huge market for it.
My own experience is quite to the contrary. I've been fortunate not to have been a victim of violent crime in the States, and it's not that I've been particularly conservative.
On the other hand I've been directly involved in and have seen other acts of violence on at least four occasions in Japan. Two were street fights, one was when a kid on drugs decided to beat the crap out of my friend because he was hanging out with a foreigner (and mostly just because he was way whacked out--it took five cops in riot gear to subdue him), and one time I got groped on a quiet street by a kid on a bike. (If this happens to you I'd recommend screaming like a girl if you think there's a chance someone might come, I yelled like a sailor and had a very very frightened walking home).
Disclaimer, of course there are a lot more people in close proximity here. Whereas in Texas, I would see maybe a hundred people in a day, I can easily see ten times that walking though the Osaka/Umeda stations. So the odds of seeing violence are certainly higher. What I theorize though, is that there's also just less reporting of crime.
A few days in and I'm breaking one of my original tenets regarding cultural comparisons, but I hope this is in the interest of finding the truth behind the notion that Japan is so safe. That, and looking into the political myth that foreigners are responsible for a disproportionately high amount of crime. More to come...
Meanwhile I still frequently get the comment that America is dangerous (the movie Bowling for Columbine didn't help). My sneaking suspicion is that it's six of one half a dozen of the other. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of violence in Japan, although the stuff that gets reported in English is pretty much of the weird fringe variety because there's such a huge market for it.
My own experience is quite to the contrary. I've been fortunate not to have been a victim of violent crime in the States, and it's not that I've been particularly conservative.
On the other hand I've been directly involved in and have seen other acts of violence on at least four occasions in Japan. Two were street fights, one was when a kid on drugs decided to beat the crap out of my friend because he was hanging out with a foreigner (and mostly just because he was way whacked out--it took five cops in riot gear to subdue him), and one time I got groped on a quiet street by a kid on a bike. (If this happens to you I'd recommend screaming like a girl if you think there's a chance someone might come, I yelled like a sailor and had a very very frightened walking home).
Disclaimer, of course there are a lot more people in close proximity here. Whereas in Texas, I would see maybe a hundred people in a day, I can easily see ten times that walking though the Osaka/Umeda stations. So the odds of seeing violence are certainly higher. What I theorize though, is that there's also just less reporting of crime.
A few days in and I'm breaking one of my original tenets regarding cultural comparisons, but I hope this is in the interest of finding the truth behind the notion that Japan is so safe. That, and looking into the political myth that foreigners are responsible for a disproportionately high amount of crime. More to come...
