First off, what I refer to as pop-Japanology is the phenomenon of people all over the world, including scholars and otherwise reputable journalists to feel comfortable making generalizations about Japan without any fact checking. CNN has featured an article about the Sumo Bullying/Murder case that happened back in June. Arrests were made around February 8th…
A very interesting case because of the TYPE of data that was being kept. Things like “Her husband is Indian, the worst.” I think this is a bad translation of “saitei” meaning that she (or he) is just the lowest. Just a big put down. Another example that was in the Japanese news was listing…
woman strangles 13 year old autistic daughter Mother claims she had planned to kill herself afterwards. Does she expect some kind of sympathy or consideration for that announcement? Respect life! Powered by ScribeFire.
I have not been able to find a comment by the mother or father which might give us some perspective on the situation… but 3 months seems a little early to give up on someone. grandma imprisoned for strangling disabled grandson Powered by ScribeFire.
There have already been a lot of stories this year, but I’m just starting on this theme today… I think counting these things will help people realize how big the problem is. For the most part, I’m only counting the articles in English too. If I see a really significant one in Japanese that doesn’t…
17 year old sumo wrestler beaten to death on June 26 by his stablemaster and other senior members of the stable. The murderers were finally arrested on February 8th. The stablemaster admitted that he hit the kid with a beer bottle “to discipline him”. He had also been beaten with a baseball bat and died…
Male member of cheerleading squad at Meiji University (one of the highly rated private universities around Tokyo) among other members beaten by senior students… kills self. More sad news. Why do they have to beat people? I also think it should be easier for these kids to quit clubs. They get advised to stick it…
Another murder suicide. Since the 34 year old daughter was bed-ridden, this may be one of those put-us-out-of-our-miseries murder-suicides that happen in Japan. I really don’t mean to sound blase about it, but if you check this blog, you’ll see just how often this happens. Murder-suicide suspected in deaths of old man, daughter
A student killed himself in a bathroom at school. Everyone around him seems to think it was “bullying” or ijime in Japanese, but the school will never admit it. If it’s determined that the cause is ijime, the school, teachers, guilty students, parents of the guilty students, and all the levels of school boards up…
This is not a news story, but I think there may be some people reading the blog who are thinking about studying Japanese. This text book series (especially the one written in Hiragana and Katakana) is one of the best despite the name. I know that “Whatever” For Busy people sounds pretty bad, but actually…
Fukuoka Gynecologist Convicted for Molesting Patients A gynecologist? That’s pretty low. His victims were aged 26 and 16. He was acquitted of a case involving a 17 year old. The article says that he also took photos of their bodies and faces. Who can you trust? Powered by ScribeFire.
These guys are going to keep me busy posting! Karate DVD star teacher and a sixteen year old girl from his school. Article in English on Mainichi. Teacher Arrested for Having Sex with Student from his School Bonus: My guess is that the fact he’s been on “sick leave” since November means the school knew…