We are being annoyed by the increase of heinous crimes in Japan. We cannot keep our society stable without the severe punishment of the murder.
Japanese Edition
Heinous Crime
Prevention
On TV, recently I saw a young man asking adults the reason why murder is bad. A few adults hesitated to answer, and another said, "Murder is not necessarily bad." I supposed that the young man has never been taught about it by his parents.
First of all we, adults, have to definitely recognize the necessity of the severe punishment. Next we have to convince young people that the severe rules are necessary for our society. Before children begin to think why it is bad, we must teach them that murder is the worst deed in the world. The reason should be taught after they become schoolchildren.
The Nihon Keizai Shinbun newspaper (Aug. 19, 2003) reported that The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology began to make up for the decline of the ability of parental education. The education courses for the pregnant woman and her husband, and for the parents of the child, who reaches school age soon, have already started. On the next year, the child-care course for the parents of adolescents is planned to double and the course for the high school students, who become parents in the near future, is planning.
I agree to the thoughts that someone should make up for the disappearance of the good part of the old parental education occurred by the change of the times and the decrease of the family members. Although I do not think that the heinous crimes decrease by education only, I believe the present circumstances will be improved if the plan is put into practice. I would like to wait patiently the good results.
The Nihon Keizai Shinbun Newspaper (Sept. 26, 2003) says that the prevention of the international organized crimes is most important. I have no numerical data about it but I suppose that the ratio of foreigner heinous criminals is abnormally high when I compare the following two ratios:
Japanese heinous criminals/Japanese population
Foreigner heinous criminals/Foreigners in Japan
I think that the entry into Japan should be examined more strictly and the illegal aliens should be exposed more completely.
I hope the National Police Agency succeeds in the measures against the crimes.Treatment of Criminals
I am astonished that the prison term of a murderer is often less than 10 years. I can hardly understand why the murderer is not punished severely. The mild punishment must have decreased the stability of our peaceful society. I cannot agree to treat equally the murderer's human rights and a good citizen's human rights. Even if the penalty has the meaning of an exemplary punishment, the heinous criminals should be punished severely to keep the stability of our society.
The criminal's background and psychiatric examination are used only for protecting the criminal. The examination data become meaningful when the data are used for prevention of the same kind of crimes. The criminal investigation and its trial do not exist to decide the punishment but to prevent the same kinds of crimes. The data should be used for the education and rehabilitation of the criminal, not for shortening the prison term. The name omitted data should be informed to the general public and educational facilities in order to prevent the same kinds of crimes.
Sometimes I hear that the murder suspect is not guilty because he was the mental disorder at that time. It is very dangerous to give him back to our society. He should be protected at a suitable hospital or an institution until he gets well.
The juvenile criminal is tenderly protected by the juvenile law. But the punishment should be settled with the gravity of his crime without the consideration of his age when the criminal kills a person with the murderous intent. It is undoubtedly misfortune to him that he killed a person in his boyhood, but the crime has the same harmful effect as the adult crime on our society. The death penalty for the juvenile criminal is necessary to prevent the occurrence of the second offenses and imitative crimes.
Relief
It is very difficult that the heinous criminal is warmly accepted by our society. Even if the juvenile heinous criminal was protected by the juvenile law, the rumor about him would spread through our society. It is meaningless to be protected imperfectly. He should be punished with the same way as the adult. After his prison term is over, suitable institutions, which he can temporarily escape from real world at any time, should be prepared for his relief. These institutions are indispensable to prevent his second offense and to keep our society safe.
Uploaded
October 9, 2003
Revised July 16, 2005