Kyoto arson defendant's doctor calls for ways to resolve isolation

There have been a lot of people in history who have had a tough upbringing. No more excuses. If he can’t take it, he shouldn’t have done it.

If you had a son or daughter sentenced to death by the State, you might be more forgiving in live imprisonment.

Obviously the good doctor’s aim at beginning a discussion about isolation in Japan has fallen on deaf ears on Japan Today’s comment board.

Isolation is a big problem in Japan and other places. Caring or talking to other people is an important function for humans; if someone talked to Aoba, lives could have been saved.

If you had a son or daughter sentenced to death by the State, you might be more forgiving in live imprisonment.

If you had an innocent, beloved son or daughter purposely burned to death by a mass murderer, you'd understand the call for the death penalty to be carried out.

Aoba needs to swing.

Thank heavens for those such as Dr Ueda, who seek to learn, educate and ensure such a tragedy never occurs again.

Alas, for the lynch mobs, vengeance will always be more important than erudition and prevention.

That scumbag only deserves gallows..

Right, I get it. Those 36 victims should have noticed that Aoba was upset as he walked in with the gas cans and instead of running in fear they should have talked to him about his hurt feelings. The poor flower. Aoba should be set free and given some cash from public funds for his inconvenience. (sarcasm emoji)

No one is saying that he doesn't deserve punishment for what he did, the point is that there are societal issues that can act as a catalyst towards this sort of behavior and we should be working towards better understanding them and fixing them. Humans are so complex, instead of approaching this in the usual archaic manner and asking for him to be executed, we should strive towards rehabilitating as many people as possible. Some of the most inspiring people and stories come from individuals who fall to the lowest pits of humanity and manage to climb their way back up, we shouldn't just throw more human life away on top of what has already been taken.

Isolation is a choice you make. Period. Aoba says he might not have done it had he met people like the doctors before the incident. Well, why didn't he? They are all out there. It was his choice not to engage with them.

Isolation is but an excuse

If removing that excuse can reduce the death of innocent people then there is still an argument to do it. The argument is not about something that can be used to exculpate the criminal, but to prevent a person from becoming one in the first place.

Right, I get it. Those 36 victims should have noticed that Aoba was upset as he walked in with the gas cans and instead of running in fear they should have talked to him about his hurt feelings.

That would mean you don't get it, if something was in place that could have prevented Aoba from killing the victims, would you still consider it something without value?

Social isolation and being socially rejected has dire consequences. Not everyone will set out to cause death and mayhem but even so their inner lives will be hell without hope or acceptance. I feel that we're marching towards a bleak future where almost all of us can fall to isolation. We need to foster physical communities to regain our humanity.

Boo hoo. You had a tough childhood. Lots of people in this world are abused as children. Some repeat the abuse to their own children creating a cycle. Some learn from it and become really compassionate people with nothing but love for the people around them. But most don't murder 36 people. You have to take responsibility for your actions. We can't choose our parents. But we can choose how we live as adults.

He shouldn't get the death penalty. Being as burned as he is, just moving to scratch his shoulder will be excruciating. Let him live his days out in prison.

All our justice is predicated on us all having free will, yet it looks like many do not. They are slaves to their worst emotions and prejudices. This is quite apart from whether any kind of free will exists in a deterministic, uncaring and ultimately nihilistic universe.

Virusex...

That would mean you don't get it, if something was in place that could have prevented Aoba from killing the victims, would you still consider it something without value?

There is something in place. Its called being a normal human. Perhaps the fact that he wasn't was why he was isolated?

Shinji Aoba has been given the death sentence.

That scumbag only deserves gallows.

He'll just be getting a neck-stretching.

Killing for vengeance does nothing to prevent it from happening again.

There is something in place. Its called being a normal human.

That "something in place" did not prevented the crime, that is sole condition to characterize that could have been used.

Again, your argument is that any mechanism that would have prevented the tragedy is unnecessary this means you feel better punishing a criminal than preventing the crime. That is not something productive nor desirable.