Crime in Japan: Paradise Lost? PDF
Preview Crime in Japan: Paradise Lost?
Crime in Japan Also by Dag Leonardsen JAPAN AS A LOW-CRIME NATION Crime in Japan Paradise Lost? Dag Leonardsen Lillehammer University College, Norway © Dag Leonardsen 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23554-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31394-5 ISBN 978-0-230-29031-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230290310 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leonardsen, Dag. Crime in Japan : paradise lost? / Dag Leonardsen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Crime – Japan. 2. Japan – Social conditions – 1989– I. Title. HV7112.L46 2010 364.952—dc22 2010002700 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 To Klang – for your inclusiveness This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations viii Preface and Acknowledgements ix 1 Japan – Quo Vadis? 1 2 Reacting to and Tackling Social Problems: Moral Panic and Perseverance 15 3 Economic, Social, and Cultural Changes 1990–2005 30 4 Crime in Japan 1990–Mid-2000s 68 5 The Authoritative Interpretation of the Crime Situation 106 6 Social Disruption? Self-Destruction and Social Phobia in Modern-Day Japan 135 7 Depression of Mind through Suppression of Crime? 171 Notes 197 References 222 Index 241 vii Illustrations Tables 4.1 Crime rate for major offenses in five countries 104 6.1 Suicide rates in Japan by age (2006) 160 6.2 Suicide rates by country and sex (2005) 160 Figures 3.1 A causal model for crime/social problems 32 4.1 N umber of reported cases for non-traffic penal code offenses, theft and non-traffic penal code offenses excluding theft (1946–2005) 77 4.2 T rends in the number of juveniles cleared for penal code offenses and their rate per 100,000 population (1946–2005) 87 4.3 Trends in the number of juveniles cleared for homicide or robbery (1946–2004) 89 6.1 A model for understanding hikikomori 153 viii Preface and Acknowledgements On my last trip to Japan in 2008, I was one evening sitting by the fire- place with my Japanese colleague and friend in his cottage. After a glass of sake he asked me about my impression of his country of today. I think I answered, perhaps in a culturally ‘correct’ way, that I heldambiguous feelings. Having read my Japanese newspapers (English version) daily for many years I was certainly aware of the blue moods that had entered this society over several years. Nevertheless, I was quite surprised by the grave tone in the voice of my colleague, when answering my return of the same question, by declaring: ‘there is no optimism any more; there is no future to believe in’. After some further elaboration of his answer, I gradually decoded his message in a Durkheimian direction: it was a diagnosis of anomie (confusion about norms and confusion about aims) that my friend presented. Japan had reached a fork in the road. An era seemed to have reached its end. Something new had to come into being. In a situation of transition, I heard a message about a Japan that was run by a leadership without visions and without alternatives that people, especially among an increasing group of outsiders, could support. Japan was like a big tanker with no steering and with no competent politi- cians to take the lead. This had created a situation of disillusionment and a loss of hope for the future. As will become clear throughout this book, I have reached much of the same conclusion as my colleague. Japan has, as Morishima (2000), an economic theorist, declares, come to a deadlock, and Morishima is depressingly clear in his judgement: Japan ‘is unlikely to recover in the twenty-first century, and will instead gradually slide down into the depths’. Journalist McGregor (1996), who lived in Japan through the economic crisis in the early 1990s, adds to the above commentary by describing Japan as a ‘creaky house of cards on the brink of collapse’ (cover text). I am not in a position fully to validate these gloomy proph- ecies, but there are surprisingly many, strongly pessimistic, diagnoses about the state of this society. This goes for economic matters as well as for the broader cultural situation. When crime, suicide, and social retreatism (discussed in this book) seem to have increased for some years, I think these changes should be understood in this broader context. In the present book I am not painting a very bright picture of the trendd in how social conditions have developed in present-day Japan. ix
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