[Nyororin]

I hate it when people drag up old stories of murders, etc, that happened in Japan. Or even the new one, like the dad who went crazy with an ax.

And yet they divert their eyes from similar, often far worse, things that happen on a regular basis in their own country or others...

Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. Is it perfectly safe? Of course not. But it`s considerably better than most of the world. There isn`t some mysterious "dark side" - Japan is filled with humans, and humans have mental illnesses, imbalances, etc. Crime happens.

But because big criminal events are actually a rarity in Japan, they become BIG news - often to an international level. And people like to jump on the bandwagon and point wagging fingers, saying "Look! They`re depraved! Japan is awful!" etc.

But you know, a gang murder in the US where a bunch of kids and their parents are gunned down, ending with a baby being thrown from a window into the street doesn`t even get front page in the LOCAL paper, let alone worldwide coverage. (I probably only know the details of the event because I lived a street away at the time, and happened to see the killers as they fled the scene... Along with a bloody 5 year old hiding in the bushes.)

*sigh*

When things like that are so normal that they don`t even get a mention on the evening news, I think there is a problem.