The number of crimes against children, including murders and sexual assaults, declined slightly in Japan last year but remained at disturbingly high levels, the Justice Ministry said yesterday.
A series of attacks on young children late last year -- including the killings of three school girls in less than a month -- rocked society and shocked many parents into keeping a closer eye on their kids, fearing they too could become victims of crime.
Great concern
"The number of violent crimes against children has [given rise to] great concern in society and is something that must be given great attention," the Justice Ministry said in this year's annual report on crime.
In one of the most high-profile cases last year, first-year elementary school student Airi Kinoshita was sexually assaulted and strangled by a Peruvian immigrant, who then dumped her body in a cardboard box close to his apartment.
The case horrified Japan, where relatively low crime rates mean young children have long been allowed to make their way home from school alone. Jose Torres Yagi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime in July.
Overall, the number of children under 13 murdered in Japan last year dipped to 105 from 111 in 2004, down from a record 121 hit in 1998 but still one of the highest levels of the last decade.
The number of reported rape cases involving children was 72, down from 74 the previous year.
Overall crime rates continued to decline for the third consecutive year, with the number of penal code offences known to police falling by 8.8 percent, to 3,125,216 cases among Japan's 127 million people.
The ministry said it remained concerned by the recidivism rate of sex offenders. Of those released in 1999 and followed for five years, 39.9 percent were arrested again on some charge.
Japanese police last year started holding information on the addresses of those who had served prison terms for sex crimes involving children.
Alarming letter
Meanwhile, Japan's Education Ministry received a letter believed to be from a student who warns he plans to kill himself because of bullying at school, prompting officials to investigate, news reports said yesterday.
The letter was addressed to Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki and delivered on Monday by mail, Kyodo News agency reported. But it could have been from a boy in elementary school or junior high school, judging from its handwriting and content, the report said.
The sender said classmates told him he is "gross" and pulled his trousers down but that his teacher did not intervene, Kyodo said.
The reports followed a recent string of suicides by children who claimed they had been bullied at school.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
‘APOCALYPTIC : An UN official said that Lebanon was ‘the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,’ and a conflict that involved it would draw in Syria and other nations Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.” The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza. Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said