JAPAN: Youth Crime Spurs National Self-Examination

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 9 1998 (IPS) - A recent spate of juvenile crime is prompting Japan to launch a searing examination into what experts say may be a sign of a “breakdown” in its traditional social mores.

On Feb. 2, a 15-year-old junior high school boy attacked a policeman with a knife in order to get hold of his handgun which, the arrested child later said, “he had been dying to have for a long time”.

The week before that, a 13-year-old boy stabbed his teacher to death in the school corridor because she had scolded him for being rude and inattentive during class. The boy, whom his teacher had described as quiet and well-behaved, slashed his 27-year-old mentor six times until she died.

In the wake of these incidents that have upset a society unused to violence, the government is now considering a new law that would prohibit the sale of knives to schoolchildren.

“I cannot understand the mindset of today’s youngsters,” Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said. “I carried a knife but I never thought of using it.”

After holding a special meeting last week, an education ministry panel said the behaviour of Japanese children today only reflect declining morality in adult society.

Selfishness, excessive hedonism, money worship and lack of responsibility characterise the current social environment, which is not conducive to raising children, said members of the panel.

The group pointed out that many children are spoilt by overindulgent parents. As a result they often do not know how to restrain their personal desires, according to the experts.

“Children today are more savage than previous generations,” said Kazuo Susuki, a teacher at Suzuki Gakuin, a junior high school here. “This is because they are increasingly isolated from each other.”

As Japanese look into themselves for answers, the spotlight has turned onto the Japanese family, where child rearing is primarily considered the responsibility of the mother.

Experts say society may be reaping the results of a style of parental upbringing that is often overly focused on getting children into prestigious schools and successful careers.

If the parental relationship deals mostly with these matters, serious communication gaps may emerge because there is little time even for something as simple as leisurely conversation over dinner.

Fathers who hardly see their children because of long hours at work are also being blamed. Indeed, the government panel called for a culture where fathers play a more active role in child rearing, to foster healthier, more balanced development of children.

Media surveys and questionnaires sent to adults and children indicate that while parents say they trust their children, one in three schoolchildren admitted they had shoplifted, engaged in petty crime or did not confide in their mothers when they had problems.

Many children said they played truant from school, but pretended they had gone there just the same. High school girls and boys explained that they want to be “free” to choose their own way of living, and that it was no one’s business to interfere in that choice.

Keiko Oguchi, a teacher at Tokyo Shure, an academy for children who have problems staying in regular school, says officials often overlook children’s need to be nurtured in their quest for academic excellence.

Yet “this is the time to ask children what they want and how we can give them that,” she said. “Despite the gloom surrounding us, it is important to use the opportunity to admit what it was we are doing wrong.”

According to Tadayoshi Sasaki, a 16-year-old boy who attends a private high school, the problem lies in the constricting, claustrophobic atmosphere in the Japanese school system.

“When I was in primary school I spent most of my evenings going to cram school, because that was the only way I was going to pass the test to private school,” he explained. “I was determined not to go to a public school because the teachers there are more interested in enforcing rules rather treating us as human beings.”

Oguchi says it is time to reexamine rigid school rules — some as absurd as requiring teachers to measure the hairline of boys to ensure they comply with the appropriate length — that play a crucial role in Japanese society.

Japanese officials tend to think that problems have been addressed when more rules are drawn up. But they fail to acknowledge that excessive rules can squash individuality and in turn, the concept of individual responsibility.

As a result, experts say, there are Japanese children who are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions and just flout societal norms and rules in an attempt to assert their individuality.

The ‘Yomuiri Shimbun’, Japan’s largest daily, said last week that Japan’s education system is wavering between freedom and discipline, unable to find a clear path between the two.

Other analysts add that while the modern Japanese generation has been raised with the western ideals of freedom and individualism, it has not always managed to combine them with more traditional values such as group harmony and self-sacrifice.

Genkotsu Tamotsu, a respected educator, said: “Children are often lost because they have no guidance that will help them overcome this dilemma. Not from their parents, not from their teachers. Not even from the government, where much needed reform is slow in coming and often comes piecemeal.”