Thursday, 29 March 2007
English Teacher Murdered
I just read about this seconds ago and am really shocked at this. The full article can be read here and I really recommend you give it a look for all the info.
After the obvious shock and sympathy something occurred. I felt a little confused. How exactly could a man, bare foot, escape from the fourth floor of an apartment building with a police presence? Sure, I don't know all the facts but I find if hard to believe that he got away that easily. I'm actually wondering if the police actually bothered pursuing or simply stood where they were and yelled for him to stop.
It's also just a bit strange that the police are saying that they're not issuing an arrest warrant for the suspect despite the fact that they found the body in his apartment, he had been stalking her and he ran from the crime scene. Come on.
Japanese police have always been a joke for me. From their complete lack of intimidation to their dated policies and racial discrimination I simply have no respect for them. But, damn. They can give directions like nothing else.
For those wondering how safe Japan actually is... well it definitely feels safe but when you sit down and discuss things like sexual assault, stalking and racism you really have to define what "safe" is. Personally I'm a 26 year old man and I've been groped several times on the trains and experienced one of the most traumatising situations of my life; an elderly man physically restraining my arm and licking it several times before yelling racial slurs at me after I turned down his advances. This was just on my way home from work on the train when I was working in Saitama.
I've been stalked by a student who wanted to "be my friend" (I don't think he had any) and constantly emailed and rang me at all hours just to talk. Luckily he didn't know where I lived and his phone number was blockable.
From talking to friends I've heard a LOT of stories of female teachers having Japanese men follow them back to their apartments. Being groped on trains is also very common. I remember one time at NOVA and the topic came up in the staff room with around 12 teachers present. 10 of them had been sexually harassed on Japanese trains.
Don't get me started on police carding and bicycle stopping.
After all this though I still find myself thinking about how safe Japan is.
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Labels: japan, Racism, Teaching English in Japan
posted by Brad at
8:03 PM
3 Comments:
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Welcome. My name's Brad and I'm about to start my fifth year in Tokyo, Japan though lately I've found that that defines me as badly as saying I'm from Sydney, Australia.
Thanks for the info about real life in Japan for a foreigner. I lived in France for a school year, and never had those kinds of problems you describe, not even in Paris.
Cheers
John
(another of the 2K Bloggers)
Japan's just one of those countries I guess. For the most part it is safe, but again that really depends on your definition of "safe". ;)
Paris would be amazing I bet. Wow.
Skimming your first page of posts, I gather you don't like Japan very much. I'm sure there are big cultural differences, but groping and Keystone Kops are just as bad in Italy, and they have pickpockets on top of that. But I mostly wonder why you are there if the place disturbs you so much.