"Japan is a weird country."

More than once I have heard these words spoken. It is understandable: this country's people are known for their apparent kindness and politeness, as well as their efficiency. Its capital city is a host to buildings soaring high above the clouds, and its culture encompasses everything from ancient Buddhist shrines and gold-tinted pavilions to easily accessible porn sold side-by-side with morning newspapers. This country places on the fringes of society, men and women of all ages who obsess over anime figurines and have thus created a super-subculture of otaku that transcends national boundaries. Some--well, enough--are so caught up in living apart from their real lives, that "Maid Cafes" and alternate economies in the cybersphere (using real currency!) have found a huge market. While the country's infatuation with ethnic homogeneity has been criticized by the international community as being fundamentally racist, paradoxically, it is indeed this homogeneity that has fertilized its rich culture, beckoning flocks of foreigners to its land every year.

Japan is a weird country and there is no denying it. In the eyes of the rest of the world, it is weird in an eccentric way. It is weird, they say, but rich and beautiful and totally unique. They think of geisha girls and extravagant kimonos, the large, red torii gates, the samurai, sushi, endless cuisine, and uber-advanced technology on the one hand, and the Shibuya/Harajuku girls who stand at the forefront of international fashion, on the other. Unfortunately, most do not stop to observe the rotting elements of Japanese society. There is no birth-rate to be spoken of; it simply does not exist (actually, it has improved, but still). Young adults and children are thus seen as the hope of Japan's future, and yet one by one they are disappearing because of brutal bullying (ijime) that take place in schools and end only with the victim's suicide. Its education system is in shambles, with kids learning less and less kanji every year because their parents believe it is "too hard for them." Students who continue on, but fail entrance exams take their lives, believing that no happy future could possibly await them after such a failure.

Japanese society itself is rotting from its very roots; it is sickened and slowly dying. The by-products of this disintegration--horribly unaccounted for, too--are people who know no limits, who believe that their fucked up family and upbringing, or all the familial and societal pressures that they feel, can justify any immoral act.

But all of this is not so apparent to the world beyond Japanese boundaries. Everyone sees that this country has few petty crimes--at least what is noticeable--and therefore conclude it to be safe. In many ways, it is--you can be in the city without being mugged, things you lose in the city will almost always be found without anything being stolen, and you can walk around the city at night and be at ease. Yet, anyone who now lives in Japan will know that Japan is dangerous in a very different manner. As witnesses to extensive cases of murder of the most extreme kinds on a daily basis, one should be encouraged to think twice about what Japan really is.

A 22 year-old British girl was murdered this week in Chiba prefecture. She worked for NOVA, one of many English-conversation schools established in Japan. The man who killed her was a 28 year-old man and he is still on the run. You can read about her story on IHT and BBC. Needless to say, her family and her boyfriend are all devastated.

I cannot but be completely struck by this case. Partially because we are of the same age group, partially because her long-distance with her boyfriend parallels my own, but mostly because so many of my own friends are currently working as English teachers throughout East and South East Asia. "We though Japan was safe, a good society," said her father in last night's press conference. Indeed, Japan's safe environment was certainly something for the nation to be proud of. But, it should no longer be taken for granted. No, yellow fever and hepatitis may not be rampant in this country, and your wallet might not be stolen while you walk in its streets, but you make connections with the wrong people and they will end up killing you. "Wrong people" doesn't necessarily denote people with drug addictions, people involved in drug trafficking, or people involved in gangs or the yakuza. These "wrong people" are barely identifiable as such; they are immersed in their own world and believe that all their actions are justifiable. They are the unaccounted by-products of Japan's recent social disintegration.

I am thoroughly ashamed of this place whose apparent politeness and cultural beauty has masked everything that lies beneath. This place is not much safer than any other place in the world; perhaps it is a lot worse in some ways.

My deepest condolences lie with the family and friends of L. H.