Murder in Japan is quite a bloody subject, excuse the pun. The usual method of killing another individual in the US is with a gun, but in Japan they are outlawed. This means murder is a lot more personal and with it comes quite a surprising trend of knifings and beatings which seems to actually be on the rise. It's quite easy to find brothers killing sisters, husbands killing wives, sons killing fathers, stalkers killing young girls, sailors killing taxi drivers and the indiscriminate killer hating a particular group of individuals in the news. The list goes on and on, but I want to explore not only what these types of murders involve but why they might be happening in what I percieve to be an increasing rate in Japan.

I will also touch, very briefly, on the subject of what happens to murderers afterwards. The way justice is carried out in Japan just may shock you.

This is a personal analysis hub, completely biased by my own views on Japanese society. There is very little fact in my analysis and any view is my own and may not be reflective of other foreigners in the country. Please read the following with a grain of salt and feel free to leave a comment to discuss the topics to follow.

Recently I have seen more and more reports of elderly people killing one another. A lot of brothers and sisters fight and one or both of them end up dead, usually by kitchen knife. Sometimes elderly couples murder one another, such as a recent report of a 62-year old man murdering his sleeping wife by beating her to death.

Why on earth are these old people losing their classic cool?

Foreigner opinion: To me, the aging population in Japan has been suffering under a tide of social and cultural norms which require them to suppress their true feelings for decades. When their children leave home and they are alone with their siblings, things must be getting out of hand. After 40 years of putting up with the usual shit from your sibling (remember, these people are usually living together for their entire life) they just can't take it anymore.

The most puzzling, though, is why married couples are killing each other. The only reason I can come up with is that they feel divorce is not an option. They stay together way past the end of their love and relationship and at some point feel the only way out is to either kill the other or themselves (suicide hub to come).

Stalking in Japan has always been quite a problem. In fact, many young girls will jokingly call friends a stalker if they run into them too many times in a day. However, this subject actually hits quite close to home. A few days ago there was a stalker related murder less than 30 metres from my gym. An individual wanted very badly to date a 21-year old girl from a Mimi Souji but she refused to date him.

So he decided to follow her. Eventually he found out where she lived and entered their home. He attacked her grandmother, slaying her with a knife. Then attacked her. Luckily she survived her wounds (although she is still in critical care) and he was apprehended. In fact, he was in such a daze they found him on the street with blood on his shirt muttering about what he had done.

Why does this happen?

Foreigner opinion: If you ask me, this is a two-fold issue:

First, there is a high trend to disrespect and treat women. I always read about men groping, fondling and taking pictures up women's skirts on the train. I see it a lot in public too, when a salaryman gets drunk and tries to nanpa (hit on) on random women. This coupled with the cultures own treatment to objectify women probably leads many to feel it's their right to have what they want.

Second, failure is wholly unacceptable in Japanese society. Many are so distraught over failing a deadline or meeting or messing up at work that they stay very late hours and don't go home because they are double and triple checking their work. With this, when some men are rejected it could lead them to an over-emotional state then they become irrational. It's tough to say for sure, though.

Earlier this year there was an alarming number of taxi driver murders all across Japan. People will get in a taxi, ask to be driven somewhere and at the end try to rob the driver. In most cases it ends up becoming a murder because the driver resists and they come to blows or the passenger pulls a knife and simply stabs the driver. This happened recently in Okinawa, a drunk American sailor murdered a taxi driver and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Foreigner opinion: I don't know what possesses someone to do a crime like this one, but I assume it's out of desperation. Regardless, it's up to the taxi companies to protect their drivers. After this crime wave the solution was, rather than putting a barrier between driver and passenger, to put a flashing light that would "blind" the passenger if the driver hit a panick button...Really? That's ridiculas...To this date I see taxi drivers wholly unprotected from their passengers. It's a shame, many are over-worked and sleep in their taxis (Taxi driver hub to come).

The final murder trend I want to touch upon is the indiscriminate killings which occurred last year in Akihabara. This has happened before and undoubtedly will happen again. A distraught individual with a hatred for Akihabara-ites, decided and preplanned to drive his truck through a crowded intersection, jump out of his truck with a very large Bowee Knife and proceed to stab as many people as he possibly could.

He killed quite a few and was apprehended in the end, but the aftermath was quite dramatic.

Foreigner Opinion: The guy was nuts, obviously. No discounting that. The only problem I have with this situation is that 300 people were unable to stop one man with a knife. In fact, it took a dozen police officers (the first responders were stabbed) to apprehend him.

The society has taught Japanese to run away from violence that now when it comes to their faces they just run away rather than try to stop the individual. From what I understood, no individual tried to stop the man and that alone says volumes about society as a whole.

Most often, murders are cuaght in Japan becuase they are usually afraid to die (as reported by the news). However, what they are usually left to face is certain death. In Japan, the death sentence has been carried out since the end of World War II by hanging.

So, when someone commits murder and are convicted of the death sentence, they usually have 2-3 years on death row. They are not informed ahead of their execution date. The minister of justice signs the death sentence and within 2-3 hours the prisoner is executed without witnesses or notification to loved ones or the victims families until afterwards.

What does this say about society? I'm not sure, but I sure don't think the justice system is concerned with humane ways of execution.

Hopefully after reading this Hub you've learned quite a lot about some of the dangers of living in Japan. While they aren't entirely applicable to foreigners visiting, it is interesting to see what motivates some individuals in the country to commit the most heinous of acts.

I also hope that it teaches people to just be happy and live with one another as human beings and stop murdering each other senselessly. If your unhappy, go be happy somewhere else. =)

So discuss! Leave your comments on what you read and let me know what you think!!