Japanese Juvenile Justice
A number of brutal murders by young people has led to a total review of Japan's 50-year-old youth justice system. But is the introduction of new, more severe laws the answer And is crime amongst the young really as serious as some Japanese fear Hugh Levinson reports for Assignment.
Over the past few years, the people of Japan have been shocked by a series of horrific crimes committed by teenagers. It started in 1997 in the city of Kobe, when a 14-year-old killed a younger boy and cut his head off. He left the head outside a school, along with a taunting note. He was eventually arrested, but not before killing another boy. Another teenager murdered an entire family of neighbours and a 17-year-old killed a woman with a knife, during a bus hijack.
Ruriko Take lost her 16-year-old son four years ago, when a group of teenagers beat and kicked him to death. She was horrified when a family court sent one of the killers to a Juvenile Training School for less than a year. She explains:
'If a young person takes someone's life, they usually don't face a criminal trial. They are not punished. But who takes responsibility for ending that life? … The Juvenile Law here only deals with the problems of offenders – how to protect them and rehabilitate them. The sufferings of the victims are not taken into account at all.'