Youth Violence Has Japan Struggling for Answers to Sudden Acts of Rage

[Guest guest]

" Incidents of violence on school grounds have increased fivefold in

Japan over the past decade to 29,300 in 2002 "

Has Japan been injecting ethylmercury? If so, did the rate of injections

and the amount injected increase?

Youth Violence Has Japan Struggling for Answers

11-Year-Old's Killing of Classmate Puts Spotlight on Sudden Acts of Rage

By Faiola

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, August 9, 2004; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50678-2004Aug8.html

SASEBO, Japan -- On a cloudless afternoon in this sleepy port city, an

11-year-old girl drenched in blood and clutching a box cutter walked

into the lunchroom at her elementary school. Teachers and students

froze, assuming the sixth-grader known for her lighthearted nature had

gravely hurt herself -- but she quickly dispelled that impression,

witnesses said, by uttering a few chilling words: " This is not my blood. "

Minutes later, teachers found Satomi Mitarai, a 12-year-old girl, lying

in a pool of gore in an empty classroom overlooking the sandy playground

at Okubo Elementary School. The 11-year old killer, according to her own

admissions as recounted in interviews with school officials and

counselors, had led Satomi, remembered for her toothy grin, into the

room. The attacker drew the curtains before slitting her victim's throat

and brutally kicking the dying girl's head and sides, according to those

interviewed.

The killing two months ago marked the latest and one of the most extreme

in an extraordinary series of youth crimes in Japan -- including a

number perpetrated by children who did not show unusual behavior

beforehand. In many of the cases, the children involved seemed to snap

without warning, in fits of kireru, sudden acts of rage.

The surge in youth violence has sparked calls for a reassessment of the

increasingly violent and sexually charged youth culture in Japan, now

exported worldwide through animation, comic strips and video games.

The young killer in Sasebo, whose name is being withheld under Japanese

law, was an avid fan of " Battle Royale, " a popular teen movie turned

Internet game in which students kill one another through blood sport.

Although the girl is still undergoing psychological evaluation, she is

believed to have been set off by a seemingly minor offense: The victim,

one of the girl's closest friends, once called her " overweight " and

" prissy " on a Web site.

" What is so scary is that she seemed normal to us in every way, " said

Masashi Watanabe, head of the Sasebo Children's Counseling Center, whose

staff interviewed the girl after the killing. " She did not seem like a

troubled girl; there were no warning signs picked up by her teachers or

parents. She could have been any of our children. "

The youth crime wave is damaging the national sense of personal security

in a country so safe that young children often ride subways or walk home

through teeming cities unaccompanied by adults.

In recent years -- particularly since 1997, when a 14-year-old boy cut

off the head of an 11-year old and left it at the entrance gate of his

school -- Japan has experienced a rising tide of serious youth crimes,

including arson, assault, rape, manslaughter and premeditated murder.

Incidents of violence on school grounds have increased fivefold in Japan

over the past decade to 29,300 in 2002, leading the national Mainichi

newspaper to warn of Japanese schoolyards descending " into

battlefields. " Violence by younger children in particular has risen

rapidly, with the number of minors under 14 processed for violent crime

increasing 47 percent in 2003 from a year earlier. One study by a

children's research institute found that as many as 30 percent of high

school and middle school students had experienced sudden acts of rage at

least once a month. In response to rising youth crime, Japan lowered the

age for criminal prosecution in 2001 from 16 to 14 and might lower it

further.

Experts blame the violence on low self-confidence among children, and

cite pressures on family life during the country's 13-year economic

slump. Finances in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, are on the

rise, but years in the doldrums sent divorce, domestic violence and

suicide rates soaring, tearing at traditional family life and alienating

child from parent.

" In Japan, youth crime is not a problem related to poverty, " said Akira

Sakuta, a noted criminal psychiatrist. " But rather, you can say it's

more related to stress and developmental problems from children feeling

they are not wanted or are lacking attention. "

Many youths have retreated into the virtual world of the Internet, now

easily accessed out of adult view on their cell phones. Children can

view popular short animated films -- anime -- such as " Gunslinger Girl, "

a tale about murderous cyborg schoolgirls in plaid miniskirts.

Japan's top literary prize this year went to " Snakes and Earrings " by

Hitomi Kanehara, 20. Shocking youth apathy, sex and violence are central

elements of the book, a favorite of young people.

To be sure, violent crime is not the only social ill facing Japanese

youths. Suicides by minors in Japan shot up for the fifth consecutive

year in 2003, jumping 22.1 percent compared to a 6.9 percent increase

for adults over the same period.

An estimated hundreds of thousands of Japanese students, from grade

school to college, are suffering from a behavioral disorder known as

hikikomori, meaning they are unable to leave their homes or cope with

daily life, according to experts and sociologists who have studied the

phenomenon.

Thousands of teenagers, mostly girls in large cities throughout Japan,

have entered into what authorities describe as voluntary prostitution,

marketing themselves to adults through Internet sites accessed by cell

phone, mostly to earn money for designer handbags and brand-name clothing.

As society searches for answers, the Japanese tradition of discreet

affection is coming under fire. A nationwide public service campaign on

subways, trains and television is urging parents to hug their children.

" We are confronting a serious problem of how to reach out to our

children and teach them the difference between right and wrong, " said

Kohichi Tsurusaki, superintendent of the Sasebo Municipal Board of

Education.

In a country where parents and children traditionally shy away from

expressing their feelings, the power of the virtual world has perhaps

had amplified effect, experts said. Children, one government expert

said, have become too used to dead characters coming back to life with

the touch of a button on a game console. The young killer in Sasebo, for

instance, did not appear to grasp fully the fact that she had ended her

friend's life, telling the family court that she wanted to apologize to

her friend in person for the deed, according to sources familiar with

the case.

" Many Japanese children live in small block apartments with no pets and

are not exposed to real death, " said Takeshi Seto, a specialist in youth

crime at Japan's Justice Ministry. " They may not understand the concept

as much as they should. "

Without doubt, some youth crimes -- such as a 12-year old who sexually

mutilated and then pushed a 4-year old to his death off the roof of a

parking lot in Nagasaki last year -- involve disturbed children with

histories of psychotic behavior.

But many students in Sasebo have commiserated not just with the victim

here -- but with her killer. According to school officials, the

11-year-old had been under parental pressure to get better grades and

was forced to quit the school basketball team to study harder. Insults

from her friend may have seemed slight, but students appeared able to

understand the girl's rage.

" I wasn't so surprised, " one junior high school girl wrote in an

Internet chat for students hosted by NHK TV network. " I have experienced

the feeling that I hated someone to an extent that I wanted to kill the

person . . . a couple of times. "

During another Internet chat organized by a local television station in

the nearby city of Nagasaki, a student going by the handle " Arrow of

Pain " wrote: " I understand so painfully how the offender felt. I have

experienced being lonely, and being disliked . . . and of course forced

to do things by my parents. "

Sasebo, a city of 240,000 located about 200 miles southwest of Tokyo,

was already reeling from the killing in June 2003 of a teenage boy by

bullies at a local high school. The community is trying to heal in part

by fortifying parent groups, encouraging parent-child conferences, and

offering broader counseling to children and teenagers.

Part of the process was a recent memorial for Satomi Mitarai, whose

father, Kyoji Mitarai, was the Sasebo bureau chief for the Mainichi

newspaper and had lost his wife to cancer. Before his daughter's

schoolmates placed large yellow sunflowers on a white altar topped with

a large portrait of the slain girl at the local community center,

Mitarai, fighting back tears, beseeched students to learn a lesson from

his daughter's death.

" Please do not forget that right beside you are people who love you the

most, " he pleaded. " Please do not forget that there are people who would

be very sad if you disappeared, even if not by death. Please treasure

your lives. "

Special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto and Sachiko Sakamaki contributed

to this report.

*

The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

from the copyright owner.

[Guest guest]

Hello ,

Monday, August 9, 2004, 3:30:37 PM, you wrote:

TB> Has Japan been injecting ethylmercury? If so, did the rate of injections

TB> and the amount injected increase?

People in Japan eat a *lot* of sea food and sea weed. I wouldn't be

surprised if pollution of the sea affected the Japanese population

more because of this. Also, there are a lot of additives, especially

colourings, in Japanese food, as far as I'm aware.

I can't answer your question about vaccinations in Japan, but I seem

to remember that Japan did stop vaccinating infants, opting to wait

until children were older instead. So the pattern of vaccination would

be different, if not necessarily better.

Regards,

de Vries

[Guest guest]

The only thing I've *heard* is they don't allow mercury in their shots.

[ ] Youth Violence Has Japan Struggling for Answers to

Sudden Acts of Rage

" Incidents of violence on school grounds have increased fivefold in

Japan over the past decade to 29,300 in 2002 "

Has Japan been injecting ethylmercury? If so, did the rate of injections

and the amount injected increase?

Youth Violence Has Japan Struggling for Answers

11-Year-Old's Killing of Classmate Puts Spotlight on Sudden Acts of Rage

By Faiola

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, August 9, 2004; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50678-2004Aug8.html

SASEBO, Japan -- On a cloudless afternoon in this sleepy port city, an

11-year-old girl drenched in blood and clutching a box cutter walked

into the lunchroom at her elementary school. Teachers and students

froze, assuming the sixth-grader known for her lighthearted nature had

gravely hurt herself -- but she quickly dispelled that impression,

witnesses said, by uttering a few chilling words: " This is not my blood. "

Minutes later, teachers found Satomi Mitarai, a 12-year-old girl, lying

in a pool of gore in an empty classroom overlooking the sandy playground

at Okubo Elementary School. The 11-year old killer, according to her own

admissions as recounted in interviews with school officials and

counselors, had led Satomi, remembered for her toothy grin, into the

room. The attacker drew the curtains before slitting her victim's throat

and brutally kicking the dying girl's head and sides, according to those

interviewed.

The killing two months ago marked the latest and one of the most extreme

in an extraordinary series of youth crimes in Japan -- including a

number perpetrated by children who did not show unusual behavior

beforehand. In many of the cases, the children involved seemed to snap

without warning, in fits of kireru, sudden acts of rage.

The surge in youth violence has sparked calls for a reassessment of the

increasingly violent and sexually charged youth culture in Japan, now

exported worldwide through animation, comic strips and video games.

The young killer in Sasebo, whose name is being withheld under Japanese

law, was an avid fan of " Battle Royale, " a popular teen movie turned

Internet game in which students kill one another through blood sport.

Although the girl is still undergoing psychological evaluation, she is

believed to have been set off by a seemingly minor offense: The victim,

one of the girl's closest friends, once called her " overweight " and

" prissy " on a Web site.

" What is so scary is that she seemed normal to us in every way, " said

Masashi Watanabe, head of the Sasebo Children's Counseling Center, whose

staff interviewed the girl after the killing. " She did not seem like a

troubled girl; there were no warning signs picked up by her teachers or

parents. She could have been any of our children. "

The youth crime wave is damaging the national sense of personal security

in a country so safe that young children often ride subways or walk home

through teeming cities unaccompanied by adults.

In recent years -- particularly since 1997, when a 14-year-old boy cut

off the head of an 11-year old and left it at the entrance gate of his

school -- Japan has experienced a rising tide of serious youth crimes,

including arson, assault, rape, manslaughter and premeditated murder.

Incidents of violence on school grounds have increased fivefold in Japan

over the past decade to 29,300 in 2002, leading the national Mainichi

newspaper to warn of Japanese schoolyards descending " into

battlefields. " Violence by younger children in particular has risen

rapidly, with the number of minors under 14 processed for violent crime

increasing 47 percent in 2003 from a year earlier. One study by a

children's research institute found that as many as 30 percent of high

school and middle school students had experienced sudden acts of rage at

least once a month. In response to rising youth crime, Japan lowered the

age for criminal prosecution in 2001 from 16 to 14 and might lower it

further.

Experts blame the violence on low self-confidence among children, and

cite pressures on family life during the country's 13-year economic

slump. Finances in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, are on the

rise, but years in the doldrums sent divorce, domestic violence and

suicide rates soaring, tearing at traditional family life and alienating

child from parent.

" In Japan, youth crime is not a problem related to poverty, " said Akira

Sakuta, a noted criminal psychiatrist. " But rather, you can say it's

more related to stress and developmental problems from children feeling

they are not wanted or are lacking attention. "

Many youths have retreated into the virtual world of the Internet, now

easily accessed out of adult view on their cell phones. Children can

view popular short animated films -- anime -- such as " Gunslinger Girl, "

a tale about murderous cyborg schoolgirls in plaid miniskirts.

Japan's top literary prize this year went to " Snakes and Earrings " by

Hitomi Kanehara, 20. Shocking youth apathy, sex and violence are central

elements of the book, a favorite of young people.

To be sure, violent crime is not the only social ill facing Japanese

youths. Suicides by minors in Japan shot up for the fifth consecutive

year in 2003, jumping 22.1 percent compared to a 6.9 percent increase

for adults over the same period.

An estimated hundreds of thousands of Japanese students, from grade

school to college, are suffering from a behavioral disorder known as

hikikomori, meaning they are unable to leave their homes or cope with

daily life, according to experts and sociologists who have studied the

phenomenon.

Thousands of teenagers, mostly girls in large cities throughout Japan,

have entered into what authorities describe as voluntary prostitution,

marketing themselves to adults through Internet sites accessed by cell

phone, mostly to earn money for designer handbags and brand-name clothing.

As society searches for answers, the Japanese tradition of discreet

affection is coming under fire. A nationwide public service campaign on

subways, trains and television is urging parents to hug their children.

" We are confronting a serious problem of how to reach out to our

children and teach them the difference between right and wrong, " said

Kohichi Tsurusaki, superintendent of the Sasebo Municipal Board of

Education.

In a country where parents and children traditionally shy away from

expressing their feelings, the power of the virtual world has perhaps

had amplified effect, experts said. Children, one government expert

said, have become too used to dead characters coming back to life with

the touch of a button on a game console. The young killer in Sasebo, for

instance, did not appear to grasp fully the fact that she had ended her

friend's life, telling the family court that she wanted to apologize to

her friend in person for the deed, according to sources familiar with

the case.

" Many Japanese children live in small block apartments with no pets and

are not exposed to real death, " said Takeshi Seto, a specialist in youth

crime at Japan's Justice Ministry. " They may not understand the concept

as much as they should. "

Without doubt, some youth crimes -- such as a 12-year old who sexually

mutilated and then pushed a 4-year old to his death off the roof of a

parking lot in Nagasaki last year -- involve disturbed children with

histories of psychotic behavior.

But many students in Sasebo have commiserated not just with the victim

here -- but with her killer. According to school officials, the

11-year-old had been under parental pressure to get better grades and

was forced to quit the school basketball team to study harder. Insults

from her friend may have seemed slight, but students appeared able to

understand the girl's rage.

" I wasn't so surprised, " one junior high school girl wrote in an

Internet chat for students hosted by NHK TV network. " I have experienced

the feeling that I hated someone to an extent that I wanted to kill the

person . . . a couple of times. "

During another Internet chat organized by a local television station in

the nearby city of Nagasaki, a student going by the handle " Arrow of

Pain " wrote: " I understand so painfully how the offender felt. I have

experienced being lonely, and being disliked . . . and of course forced

to do things by my parents. "

Sasebo, a city of 240,000 located about 200 miles southwest of Tokyo,

was already reeling from the killing in June 2003 of a teenage boy by

bullies at a local high school. The community is trying to heal in part

by fortifying parent groups, encouraging parent-child conferences, and

offering broader counseling to children and teenagers.

Part of the process was a recent memorial for Satomi Mitarai, whose

father, Kyoji Mitarai, was the Sasebo bureau chief for the Mainichi

newspaper and had lost his wife to cancer. Before his daughter's

schoolmates placed large yellow sunflowers on a white altar topped with

a large portrait of the slain girl at the local community center,

Mitarai, fighting back tears, beseeched students to learn a lesson from

his daughter's death.

" Please do not forget that right beside you are people who love you the

most, " he pleaded. " Please do not forget that there are people who would

be very sad if you disappeared, even if not by death. Please treasure

your lives. "

Special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto and Sachiko Sakamaki contributed

to this report.

*

The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

<http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

from the copyright owner.

[Guest guest]

megami <megami@x> wrote:

Japan did stop vaccinating infants, opting to wait

> until children were older instead. So the pattern of vaccination

would

> be different, if not necessarily better.

In 1975, when Japan stopped vaccinating children under the age of 2

years dramatic improvements in their infant mortality occurred.

Japan's place in the world scale of infant mortality went from 17, a

poor position, to number 1, the best performance. It is quite clear

that the shift of the lower vaccination limit to 2 years resulted in

a dramatic decrease in SIDS going quickly from a very high to the

lowest rate of infant deaths in the world. Between 1970 and 1974, 37

infant deaths occurred after DPT vaccination in Japan and because of

this the doctors in one prefecture boycotted the vaccination.

Consequently, the Japanese Government stopped DPT vaccination for 2

months in 1975, and, when vaccination was resumed, the vaccination

age was lifted to 2 years.

With this change in government policy the entity of sudden death

almost disappeared from vaccine injury compensation claims (only 2

deaths were subject of vaccine injury compensation claims in the 2-

year olds compared with 37 in younger children). In the late `80s,

Japanese parents were given the choice to start vaccinating at

earlier ages again and most, ignorant of what had gone on before,

chose starting at 3 months of age. The rate of SIDS in Japan has

since returned to high levels.

http://curezone.com/forums/mp.asp?f=74 & i=290

Donna

[Guest guest]

I think the Japanese encephalitis vaccine may still contain

ethylmercury.

" I understand so painfully how the offender felt. I

have

> experienced being lonely, and being disliked . . . and of course

forced

> to do things by my parents. "

>

> Sasebo, a city of 240,000 located about 200 miles southwest of

Tokyo,

> was already reeling from the killing in June 2003 of a teenage

boy by

> bullies at a local high school. The community is trying to heal

in part

> by fortifying parent groups, encouraging parent-child

conferences, and

> offering broader counseling to children and teenagers.

>

> Part of the process was a recent memorial for Satomi Mitarai,

whose

> father, Kyoji Mitarai, was the Sasebo bureau chief for the

Mainichi

> newspaper and had lost his wife to cancer. Before his daughter's

> schoolmates placed large yellow sunflowers on a white altar

topped with

> a large portrait of the slain girl at the local community

center,

> Mitarai, fighting back tears, beseeched students to learn a

lesson from

> his daughter's death.

>

> " Please do not forget that right beside you are people who love

you the

> most, " he pleaded. " Please do not forget that there are people

who would

> be very sad if you disappeared, even if not by death. Please

treasure

> your lives. "

>

> Special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto and Sachiko Sakamaki

contributed

> to this report.

>

> *

>

> The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

> who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

> information for research and educational purposes.

> For more information go to:

> http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

> <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

> <http://oregon.uoregon.edu/%7Ecsundt/documents.htm>

> If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

> purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

> from the copyright owner.

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Long time back, a group of medical experts in Maebashi, a town in the north

of Tokyo, had a look on effects of MMR vaccine, and saw an increase of

meningitis. So the government put a stop to the vaccines, and babies'

sudden deaths came to an end in Japan.

The Japanese government, then, made a new rule that the families didn't

have to give other vaccinations to BOYS and GIRLS. At the same time,

however, they gave out an OPINION that it would be safer to give them to

BABIES. The outcome was that more babies had DTP, Japanese encephalitis,

and influenza vaccines, with thimerosal.

When the news of mercury-autism theory came to Japan in 2001, some medical

companies had a start of working on how to make vaccines without Hg. Now

it's possible for us to get any sort of no-mercury vaccines, but still

mercurochrome and thimerosal-vaccines are not out-lawed.

Ryota in Japan

[Guest guest]

At 00:21 2004/08/10 -0400, Kerbob wrote:

>

>Do you know what the autism rates are in Japan (high or low) ?

There's no nationwide work on autism-rate here after the 90's. One medical

group round Osaka did a work in 2002, and they saw one in 250. That's only

for the old sort of autism, not covering PDD-NOS and Asperger.

We are living with 24 Japanese families in the same building, and there's

another young one with autism.

A middle-school teacher in our town says that the rate of ADHD in his

school is one in ten. That's two in 25 families.

>Is there a chance that either legal or illegal drugs might be causing the

>increases of violence in Japan?

It's possible. A number of hyperactive ones take Ritalin. It's not

probable, however, for the case of the girl in the news. Our love for

seafood, as someone on this list says, might be another cause.