Alarm over pedophilia in the safest country in the world

The case of a Vietnamese girl murdered with a strangulation mark on her neck and injuries to her genitals has once again raised the alarm about pedophilia in Japan.

According to Nippon, crimes targeting children under 13 years old decreased from 2004 to 2012, but this trend reversed in 2013, with the number of reported cases reaching 26,939 and a serious increase compared to 2014.

Tragic cases

The case of Le Thi Nhat L., 9 years old, Vietnamese nationality, in Chiba prefecture, has shocked the Japanese public. The tragic end of a young life has once again made the public question whether society has done enough to protect children and combat crimes against them.

Before the case with baby L., Japanese public opinion was stirred up many times because of child molestation cases with tragic outcomes.

In late 2004, the body of a seven-year-old girl who had been reported missing in Nara Prefecture was discovered. A 36-year-old journalist was charged with kidnapping, sexually abusing, and drowning her in a bathtub. The perpetrator was later executed.

2014 saw a spate of rapes of minors. On January 27, a third-grader in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, was abducted by an unemployed 26-year-old man and held captive in his apartment for a week.

A father whose son was kidnapped and murdered speaks to the press in 2004. Photo: Jiji.

In September 2014, the case of Ikuta Mirei, a first-grader in Kobe, shocked Japanese society. She disappeared on September 11 and just a few days later, her body was found in pieces and plastic bags in the woods near her home.

DNA testing later confirmed that the body was that of the 6-year-old girl. The perpetrator, a 47-year-old man, was arrested and convicted of murder.

Multiple cases in Chiba

A few days before the Kobe incident, a seventh-grader in Yachimata, Chiba Prefecture, was kidnapped on her way home from school. The perpetrator, a 25-year-old unemployed man, pushed the girl into a car and drove her to a residence near Tomisato. Fortunately, the victim escaped, and even luckier, she remembered the car number of the kidnapper and reported him to the police. The police discovered that he intended to kidnap, detain, and sexually assault the young girl.

In a similar case on July 14, 2014, a fifth-grader in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, was kidnapped after school. Four days later, police arrested a 49-year-old unemployed man and charged him with holding an 11-year-old hostage at his home. Police were able to quickly solve the kidnapping thanks to a suspicious license plate number seen by the victim’s mother near the scene, as well as the GPS signal from the girl’s cell phone.

In the Nara case, child pornography and children's underwear discovered at the attacker's residence suggested that he was a pedophile and that this was the cause of the crime.

Experts are concerned about the possible consequences of easy access via the Internet to a large amount of obscene products involving children.

Another reason is that in Japan, the production and distribution of child pornography is a crime, but possession of such material is not. Recently, a new regulation was introduced, according to which possession of any material in any form will be punished by up to 1 year in prison and a fine of up to 1 million yen (about 200 million VND).

Pedophilia is on the rise, mysteriously

Japan is often considered a bit strange compared to other countries. Its economic success, distinct culture, and high level of discipline have made Japan unique and one of the countries with the lowest crime rates in the world.

Japan has a population of 127 million, yet street crime is virtually non-existent. The murder rate is lower than even tiny countries like Monaco and Palau, and drug use is among the lowest of any industrialized nation.

However, according to Nationmaster, this is also a carefully maintained image that ignores many darker aspects of Japanese society. The surface image of Japan often fails to take into account social attitudes towards women in a male-dominated culture.

First grader Ikuta Mirei was kidnapped and murdered in Kobe. Photo: AsiaonlineNews.

If violent assaults are considered rare, sexual assaults are considered common and serious and go unreported.

The existence of chikan (perverts) is a major problem, evidenced by the “women-only” train cars in major cities. Japanese police have also been criticized for not taking victims of sex crimes seriously: they are biased or incapable of investigating such crimes.

The most dangerous aspect is the police culture’s obsession with keeping crime statistics low. Former investigators have said that police are reluctant to investigate murders unless there is a clear suspect and often treat unnatural deaths as suicides without performing autopsies.

Coincidentally, Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world!

According to Kienthuc.net.vn