People point to Japan as being an example of a relatively crime free society, and it is I think. I walk around town, largely by myself with not a whole lot of worry. That’s not to say that I don’t keep an eye out or I go down streets that look a little uninviting, but then, I feel that way in the city I live in back home.
There are problems here. There are street toughs and petty criminals, but unquestionably, it’s not as pervasive as in our cities.
There is major crime. The other day, a young man beat his mother to death. There is an on-going securities scandal with a company called “Live Door”. livedoor.com is an internet portal service ala Yahoo. Do a Google search and click on the translate link. The translation is literal so it reads funny, but you’ll get the idea.
They have a homeless problem. Yesterday, in Osaka, about 500 city officials and a whole bunch of riot cops evicted a homeless encampment out of a city park. Gambling is ubiquitous. Pachinko/slot machine parlors with their bright lights and colored facades are all over the place. The Yakuza, a Japanese style Mafia, controls most of the gambling here and most of the sports like Sumo wrestling.
Sex among young people is rampant. Chlamydia is epidemic among highschoolers along with other STDs.
Japan is largely a homogenous society. There are a few minorities, mostly Korean, but by and large, the Japanese are Japanese. Certainly their culture is full of westernization, but they have a way of “Japanizing” it.
Most of their society is well regimented. Everyone knows their place and, for the most part, accepts it. Slowly, this is changinging and for the worst in my opinion. We do have some problems in the United States. Probably a lot more than in Japan, but as Japan becomes more liberal; their problems mount, just as it does in the US.
People have this idea that freedom is free of responsibility. Nothing could be further than the truth. History proves that as a culture or society abandons responsibility, it will fall and what comes after, isn’t always pretty. In fact, it is usually much worse than what was before.
The USA is still the greatest country on this earth. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who wish to bring it down and the worst part of it is, many of those people are her own citizens.
VW
What about those tiny little cubby hole hotels I've heard about? Are they really like that and do they do much business?
Posted by: Cindy | Monday, January 30, 2006 at 19:09