crime

Woman assaulted, robbed while on her way home in Saitama

13 Comments

A 19-year-old woman was attacked from behind by a man and robbed as she was on her way home in Sakado, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday morning.

According to police, the woman had finished her part-time job and was walking home at around 2:30 a.m. when the incident occurred, Fuji TV reported. The woman told police the man came up behind her, put his hand over her mouth, then started hitting her in the face and chest.

The woman was quoted by police as saying the man, whom she did not know, stole 10,000 yen and her cell phone and then fled. Police said the woman sustained some bruises in the struggle.

The assailant is described as being in his late 40s or early 50s, about 170 cms tall and was wearing a black polo shirt and half-length jeans.

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13 Comments
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Coward, glad she'll be okay.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Is a 19 year old considered a 'woman'? I guess 'girl' would sound weird.

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Police said the woman sustained some bruises in the struggle.

Glad it sounds like she was not seriously injured. It could have been worse. From now on, she should think about safer ways to get home late at night. Hope police catch the suspect ASAP.

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Yes, compared to other countries Japan is quite safe, unless you are a woman or a child (or both), in which case, the dangers are no different to other countries it's just that the incidents are fewer, but just as cowardly. Glad she is ok. This could have been much worse.

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@Gaijindesu in most western countries 18 is the adult age so (young) woman, is OK. Don't want to do the Saitama meme, but again Saitama?

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@Dennis Bauer

I agree that 18 is considered "adult" in most western countries and I also agree with "young woman" without the parentheses around "young"... (it's only one "extra word" but it makes ALL the difference !)

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Someone must teach 40 years old robber for how to work and earn the money and not by cowardly attacking innocent young woman for a few Yen in prison. I hope Police will catch him soon.

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Sad to say these incidents are becoming more frequent in Japan. Hopefully she will become more aware of the dangers of walking home at 2.30am. It could have been more tragic , like end up floating in the river.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Sad to say these incidents are becoming more frequent in Japan.

Are they? Or do you just get that impression because you are reading more stories about them than you previous did?

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Dennis Bauer: "Don't want to do the Saitama meme, but again Saitama?"

Exactly! They are going for broke as we approach the last quarter of the year.

Strangerland: "Are they? Or do you just get that impression because you are reading more stories about them than you previous did?"

So, you think the stories are increasing because the frequency is Decreasing? Really? Shouldn't the fact that you have to defend your 'Japan is a safe country' judgement literally on a daily basis prove that perhaps it's not quite as safe as you make it out to be without qualifying it? And don't backtrack, please.

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So, you think the stories are increasing because the frequency is Decreasing? Really?

No, that's not what I said. Is that the only thing you could come up with? I bet if you tried you could come up with other reasons why we may read more stories, without an increase in these types of actions. And you may even be able to come up with the one I had in mind.

Shouldn't the fact that you have to defend your 'Japan is a safe country' judgement literally on a daily basis prove that perhaps it's not quite as safe as you make it out to be without qualifying it?

Nope. That logic doesn't makes sense either.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Strangerland: "I bet if you tried you could come up with other reasons why we may read more stories, without an increase in these types of actions. And you may even be able to come up with the one I had in mind."

I sure could think of why YOU might think so -- it's called fantasy. The rest of us see an increase as an increase not a decrease. But what hypothetical situation to avoid the facts did you have in mind, then?

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Here are a few reasons:

1) The content of any media is chosen by the editors of that media. Most media, and in this case Japan Today, is a for-profit operation, it is in best interests of the media to choose stories that will increase readership. Increased readership leads to increased revenue, allowing the media source to continue providing media. Conversely, other incidents that may not draw as many readers/viewers will be left out of a news source by the editor, as they will take up more space, without bringing in increased readership. And if too many stories that are not of interest are included, it may cause a loss in readership by readers who see more stories that they don't want to read, than those they do.

As such, there is no direct correlation between the number of incidents that happen, and the number of stories in the media about said incidents.

An increase in the number of stories read may mean a number of things:

-- The editor of the media source may have seen an increase in readership for a given type of story, and therefore selects more of that type of story, so as to appeal to more readers. The number of incidents may be the same as before, or even decreasing, but the number of stories would show an increase, belying the true trends that are actually happening.

-- For a media source in a language foreign to the land on which it is reporting, the editors are limited to the articles that have been translated by news providers such as AFP, and/or their own staff translators. Again, if either of these see an increase in demand for stories of a given type, they are more likely to translate more stories on that type of incident, even if the trends in said type of incident are on the decrease.

So to tie it altogether, while it's possible that an increase in the number of stories of a given type indicates an increase of the number of such incidents, there is no guarantee of that, and in fact the real numbers could be a decrease in said number of incidents, even with an increase in the reporting of said incidents.

Which is why I asked:

Sad to say these incidents are becoming more frequent in Japan.

Are they? Or do you just get that impression because you are reading more stories about them than you previous did?

Without actual numbers, we cannot know.

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