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16-year-old boy arrested for barging into ex-girlfriend's high school with knife in Kitakyushu

27 Comments

A 16-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday for trespassing in his ex-girlfriend's high school and threatening staff with a knife in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Monday afternoon. Police said 20 officers were mobilized but nobody was injured.

According to police, the boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, entered the high school, brandishing a knife around 4 p.m. He told staff that he wanted to see his ex-girlfriend who is a student at the school. The boy became agitated and started waving the knife, a teacher said. Staff called police who took the boy into custody.

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27 Comments
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Here come the copycats. What a loser, name him and shame him!

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Another sick person that can't accept no for an answer. But again, had someone had a gun or weapon, this could have been prevented though thankfully no one was hurt.

<strong>Moderator: Readers, please leave guns out of these discussions.</strong>

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I hope they really start to throw the book at these wimpy mental defectives

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again knife? this time was it 'fruit knife' measuring less than 6cm?

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It's not a matter of throwing the book at them. It's a matter of finding out what is causing all these emotional breakdowns and addressing the issue. How much crap can Japan sweep under the mat before they admit there is a serious degradation of their society. All the Japanese people I know are just oblivious to these goings on and even if they do have a comment it usually something totally stupid and off beat like, "Japan learns everything from America." I've worked in Jp high schools for 8 years and I see these poor anti-social souls getting no support what-so-ever. Instead they get picked and alienated - by the teachers!

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But again, had someone had a gun or weapon, this could have been prevented though thankfully no one was hurt.

If it were the boy who had the knife, things could have very possibly ended tragically differently. Japan does not need guns.

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some14some,

A fruit knife used by a fruit cake.

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fyi: its knife season

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Fair dinkum! You are dead on with your position for this. This is a mental health crisis that is causing these outbreaks. Look at the rising number of violent incidences on trains. People are stressed, frustated, hopeless and self destructive. Prosecution is not going to do anything for this problem. People who have lost a sense of self are not going to be thinking rationally about consequences. So raising the consequences does nothing to help this problem.

The problem requires a national reconsideration of mental health and how to improve it. Plain and straight, address the causes or suffer a lot more of the symptoms of this crisis.

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what is going on latley with this country and knives

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Of course these kinds of events appear in local news and they happen everywhere, however, these events are becoming more frequent and weird in Japan. Throwing penalties and restrictions at the general populace is not going to do anything to curb this problem. It is more likely to make it worse. You only have to look at the faces of the people on the train to see there is no empathy left in this society and people are tired of their lives. Yes, it's an island nation. Yes, it's severely overcrowded. But, is that a reason to just accept the degradation of the society or should an attempt be made to stop this problem? The first thing to do would be to make people go home at 5pm and start educating people on the importance of the family unit. The next thing would be to let kids be kids instead of mindless studying robots.

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i would say that a story like this would be reported in most papers around the world, especially right after last weeks knife attacks

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Totally agree with the view Fair dinkum! has expressed in several posts.

Reading this story, I imagine this kid as a frustrated individual with a desperate need to express his anger but no clear idea of how to do that. And then there was the Akihabara tragedy just one day before. And the kid thinks: "Yeah, that's it! People will notice me then!"

Is it weird thinking like that? For most of us, with a strong sense of free will and of choice between right and wrong, definitely! But for some Japanese teenagers (I'm inclined to say "most", but I am hardly qualified to give such statistics), raised in such a strongly hierarchical society that snuffs out all independent tendencies and encourages (read "enforces") uniformity, and used to have no original ideas and copying them from somewhere/someone else all the time, it all of a sudden does not seem that strange anymore.

Just the other day I was talking to a friend about possible copycat actions after what happened on Sunday, and my first reaction was: "Why would anyone copy THAT? I partly understand suicidal people in copying a method that was proven simple and highly effective, but... random stabbing?" But then, I wasn't raised in the J-system, by J-standards and regulations, and as such, my thought patterns are obviously different.

Maybe the PM, instead of requesting increased security measures, should propose a plan for heavily funding research aimed at analyzing the general mental state of the nation and its main trends. Look at the cause and stop being so surprised by the effect!

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Would this boy have stabbed the girl if not for the teachers? Scary. Nothing used to appear in JT about KitaQ but now things are happening all the time.

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I must say that capone made a valid point. He stated that this particular incident would be news in light of the recent Akihabara incident.

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There is definitely something going on with the locals in Japan lately. Maybe we should check the water...

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NB,

You said 'In society where there are metal detectors and guards...' I don't need to misquote. If you were implying that some schools had metal detectors and guards, you should have said that.

You asked a 'simple' question, I give a 'simple' answer and you dismissed it outright. Then I gave an example of what I was referring to and you ignored it. Gun and knife crimes might be common in 'da hood' but they are not common place in every classroom across the board. So when someone trespasses at a school, waving a knife around threatening people and then 20 cops are called it's going to make it in the news no matter what the social climate and definately where I come from. If a random kid is caught with a knife in his locker I highly doubt it would be in the news but this story hardly fits that description.

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Good discussion here. I absolutly agree with the statements of japanese society illness, regarding family hiearchy structures, that are still 300years behind the west, resulting into male dominance, fake prides and values, wrong life priorities and useless pride, which even prevents fathers to show love to their own children and wifes . . .

But I doupt that Japan will have a deep crisis either. First of all if you really look at the level of owercrowded cities in japan and the millions of peoples interacting every day . . it is a miracle that not every 10 dude starts stabbing somebody (also consider the high level of internet-mobile messaging, wich enables dark thoughts to spread more quick and effective in japan, then for exemple in France).

I think that Japanese youth will completely resolve with the old generation of robots and j-pride culture in th enext 10 years. Japan was never submerged with such an amount of foreign influence that goes right into the families living rooms. If the government opens the door for more foreign buisnesses, makes new status and rights for foreigners lives in japan. The young j-peeps will turn to that new flag and leave the stress and misery (the island with no exit for new thoughts).

As a gaijin living in japan and endured the same painfull experiences as many j-workers . I turned my self again back to my homeland and are now doing buisness with the best japan has to offre and the best my homeland has to offre. I try and I am inspiring japanese friends, who went from the sceptic j-man against gaijins, to the open minded japanese bloke who takes the best of two worlds.

Keep faith japanese youth, I believe in you, change for the better!

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I do agree with some of the viewpoints presented, however, I also believe that sometimes in love, it will drive you to do some crazy things. So what I'm saying is, the boy went into the school, but only after he got frustruated because the school officials won't comply to his requests he brandished the knife and wanted to threaten the staff. Then again, we don't really know why the heck he is carrying the knife in the first place anyways, if all he wanted to do was to talk with his ex-gf.

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I think if this boy had found his ex, he would have hurt or killed her. I am a former Magistrate (&court officer) I have locked up many kids. I didn't like it but kids are committing 50% of the crimes (where I live. And they are committing crimes once thought to be adult. It seems that Japan and other countries are having more and more problems with kids and crime. I guess we are providing a good example for some of Japan's youth. Depending upon the crime, they get protection because they are minors. That is scary to me when you have 12 year-olds who clearly form intent to murder. Sad state or our societies!

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Sorry, I meant OF our societies.

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He is old enough to commit a crime, than is old enough that Media should show his picture. Sooner or later he will face the court music, and I hope that someone will have a camera. He is sweet 16, and now he is bloody 16 and I hope he stay behind the bars for a long time. Perhaps he could even come out one day with a 'Degree.' Police said he is a 'minor.' Why even mention than if he is a minor. I thought that Japan is cleverer. This kid should be exposed by media!

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BBleo,

I think you are confusing this case with others. The boy barged into a high school, but he didn't stab anyone.

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Yes this is a great discussion. The parts about returning at 5 and reuniting with the family. Well if you live in a nice well-to-do residential area, where you can go out for a walk and not be gassed out by cars, then yes. How many of Tokyo's 23-wards provide this type of environment. O.K. outside Tokyo? Well... Are we just confining our discussion to Tokyo? The trains have become one very uncosy place to be, and I don't mean just crowded. Damn unfriendly, and shall we say quite touchy. The youth, bigger and fatter than before, are none to shy to throw their weight around, we all know about the young ladies applying the make-up, and the bags that we all carry around "as protection" certainly seems to another element to reconsider. I'm really sorry to say all this, and of course the obvious retort is "if you don't like it leave" but try explaining any of this type of emotional stigma to people "back home" and they'd look at you like you were........nuts! The solution? Pray for the youth, and pray for humanity. Its all we've got, but its not going to be easy. Did anyone notice in another English newspaper today about an editorial where happiness quotient was more valuable to Japanese than gross domestic quotient?

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I'm going to agrree and disagree with Fair dinkum! and JavaChip these cases are most likely a product of a rigid society and warped family unit with misplaced priorities. I don't necessarily believe that things are different anywhere in the world. Here you have fathers who work till all hours and back home you have mothers who would rather score crack than raise their kids. Different issues but the results are often similar no matter what the type of neglect. The thing is that is by no means every Japanese family. I always joke that my in-laws are "hippy" Japanese. They all run their own businesses and work to live not live to work. When we visit my father and mother in-law dinner is always at 6pm it's a balanced free thinking group and that extends to the extended family. I was going to say maybe it's a Kyushu thing but this kid is from Kitakyushu so there goes that theory. Beyond all that this is a case of jealousy and rage not unlike what happens with most teeneagers when their "first love" goes south.

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Has anyone given the thought that maybe this is a struggle by the Japanese human psyche of trying to break out of the constricting social enviroments that has been Japan for centuries? Eventually in democractic (I say democratic because those where it is dictatorship you are harshly dealt with) societies things must change. It's looking like it is Japan's time to look at all these social situations and allow for more independent thinking and living for their people.

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First, let me say I'm glad that no one was hurt; with that said, I agree that this and the many other cases of random violence are a sign of deeper problems. The real question that govt needs to look into is the cause of the break down. I think the increasing disconnect people feel combined with a seeming lack of help/compassion from ANY source may be a significant reason. Do i think this is unique to japan? No. However, I dont think Japan is going to be able to solve this problem because the powers that be refuse to acknowlegde there IS a problem.

Pimpninja say dealing with symptom instead of disease is good way to have ouchies when you pee.

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