Investigator comments

dbung10: At least this guy stopped and admitted what he did.

And his case may be yet another declaring what a mistake that is!

If the boy was hit on the left, that means he was half way across the street before he was hit, and obviously, not paying any attention (He missed a taxi bearing down on him. They are not painted as stealth vehicles). Even if he had the right of way, he was not paying attention. If he did not, then he is guilty of causing his own death.

If the taxi driver is guilty of running a light that just turned a split second earlier, then how did the boy get halfway across the street so fast? That would mean he jumped the green which is even worse than running a fresh red. Things happen and (rightly) take your attention and cars cannot always stop so fast. Circumstances also demand running a fresh red, or some places traffic would never move.

But if the taxi driver ran a red that had been red for a long time, then jail him. Only I seriously doubt he did that. But I can guarantee the boy was not paying attention. People put too much stock in the green man. All he does is tell you its your turn. He cannot and does not verify if its actually safe for you to cross. Only you can do that.

tamanegi:Our tax money hard at work.

Smells like sarcasm. Only, I don't see the part where it says he did this on our time and tax money.

Credit to the J cops on this one though.

Maybe that is where you mean our tax money was hard at work?

Are the number of AIDs cases going up, or just more being reported more?

The World Health Organization reports the number of HIV cases in Japan to be at least 17,000.[3] This equates to roughly 0.01% of the population of Japan, one of the lowest ratios of HIV in the world.

With the lowest ratio in the world, is it a big surpise that more reporting is finally going on, or that cases may actually be still increasing? They got no where to go but up! This article is a great piece of non-news.

Sounds like all anyone had to do was give him a uniform. Would that be so hard?

kinniku:One more thing, I wonder how many of the people who are posting that this is 'no big deal' have also posted something along the lines of how bad or crazy Japan is getting lately.

I guess its a lot easier to pose that strawman question rather than just do the leg work and find out. As someone who thinks this is no big deal, no, I am not of the opinion that Japan is any more bad or crazy than it ever was. In fact, its far better than my home country on that score.

I can't believe that this expectation of public decency being respected at a public park is being questioned.

Oh my goodness, public decency! Its amazing to me how people are calling this a sex act. It seems to be only because the man was getting aroused. Its always the fault of the man! If the woman walked through the park with a string bikini complete with massive cleavage showing above her top, it might raise an eyebrow, but if she got arrested people would come here and defend her right to wear what she wants to the teeth. Yet she is arousing men against their will. But any man caught gaping would get condemnation. Any man taking a picture would get more, and could be arrested, but the main reason floated would be because he did not have permission.

This situation is so much more benign. And in neither case would a pre-school kid (the only age kid that would be in the park at that time) have any clue or concept of what was going on.

But calling either a sex act or a violation of public decency is going over-board. It also discriminates against men, and only nets women if they give permission to look or film. Kissing or hugging would be more overt than this, and yes, some Japanese do complain about those. Wisely, we tell them to stuff it when they do. We should be telling them to stuff it with this situation too.

There is being holistic and then there is being "all over the place". It might be just because its too brief, but I find this piece to be in the category of "all over the place." I think I would like to sit down and talk with the writer, but I have so many issues with the "weak" connections made between so many things, from history to today and from work time to private time, that this is actually very frustrating to read.

The writer might have good reasons for connecting these things, but they sure are not presented well here. Blacklabel on the other hand...the writer could learn a lot from Blacklabel.

The fundamental problem was the Uighurs refused to cooperate with Chinese migrants who were giving much contributions to build a better Xinjiang.

Migrants? Bringing presents? Sounds a lot like the white man coming to trade with the Native Americans! You get the beads, we get your lands.

Maybe the Han should save their presents for people who want them? Or, beware of Han bearing presents?

There is a word you should look up. Its called "condescending".

kirakira25-young kids are too young to be walking to and from school alone.

There have also been cases of guys hitting women in the face with baseball bats and slashing them once most anywhere on the body and running away. So, is it now not safe enough for anyone to walk alone, or should we just chaperone the women? Always walk in groups-no matter what?

This is the third such incident and the first two happened in different places. One off incidents happen a couple times a year at each school with varying degrees of seriousness. Usually there are no clear repeats so the next town is not notified. When it happens in the next town, they don't know its a repeat and the first town does not hear about it. By the third, it makes the press and everyone is on alert. But most cases disappear.

Probably a lot of incidents could be avoided by kids never being alone. But at what cost? Buy a bus? Make parents drive kids to school? You would get more ruptured livers that way. Traffic accidents happen too. Make the parents always walk with the kids? How many man hours of work do we lose that way?

And basically Japan is still pretty safe, and its partly because everyone keeps going on like it is and does not give in to paranoia. However, kids do usually walk in groups of other kids. Enough is enough. Perfection cannot be attained.

jason6-at least they're a little more efficient than government's 100 cops used to catch two teens.

29 year olds are teens now?

So are you happy these three men were arrested, or did their arrest also not meet the cost/benefit analysis adapted for the age requirements in the 20/20 hindsight flow chart?

kirakira25-I myself wouldn`t want to go to a public park with my coffee and paper and have to endure some perv taking pics of some dopey girl legs akimbo on a kiddies slide right in front of me.

Seems a lot easier for park bench sitter to avoid than my frisbee. Or the kids noisily playing tag. Or the dog that won't stop barking. Or that baseball. Yes, life is full of little annoyances for people with their paper and coffee. This one only counts if you lack willpower.

LoveUSA-If I was a passerby, I will call the police too. perverts should be jailed.

If they jailed them all....wait? Are you saying you want the planet to yourself?

Dear Sarge, You are confusing brave U.S. troops with the extremely cowardly and whacko government and certain people of America who will bomb and kill you and have no hesitation to accept extremely low numbers to avoid the torture of remorse.

womanforwomen: Investigator I love the way you think.

Thank you!

I am soooo looking forward to the day, men and women will go naked in the park and have sex. It will be much more easier to explain to the children and it will be so exciting for the performers and the onlookers.

It won't be easy to explain at first, but it will get easier with time. But I never would have suggested anything close to that, ever, because most people won't go for it. Just us. Luckily, what these two did was closer to having a picnic complete with honey next to Winnie the Pooh than what you described.

The only one who did anything wrong was the passerby who called the police. But we have to let her off because she probably did not understand what she was seeing.

Filming up a skirt with permission is innocent play. There is not even any nudity involved.

Even if kids saw, you think kids don't do similar stuff of their own accord? They do. And so what? I will tell you so what: not doing such things will lead to problems in later life. Its better they satisfy their curiousity now than grow up not understanding that boys and girls and men and women can and do play nicely together, much less grow up and not understand how to make such a connection.

What they did was totally benign. Anybody that has a complaint has only one leg to stand on: they should ask that all filming in public spaces require a permit and signs posted so that nosey passersby can understand at a glance what is happening. And Blacklabel makes some great points.

But your kids are going to see things. And if you can't explain something like this in an age appropriate fashion, then the problem is you. Just wait till you see a male and female dog in the park. Its going to be harder to explain than this.

Amin said the missing figures were based on people who came to the ministry to report a missing relative, something that many Iraqis, who feared reprisals and were hesitant to draw attention to themselves, were loathe to do.

I could have gotten a more accurate number counting rocks in the desert, or stars in the sky. The whole basis for the number is total malarky.

Moreover, this would be a specific number, yet what we get are figures rounded off to the thousands? Baloney. And it says they cut out deaths that were not violent and the year 2003? How? Reports of missing people do not include how they died or when! If you knew that, you would not be reporting people missing! What complete garbage!

The most intelligent line:

At best, the numbers released by the Human Rights Ministry and those obtained by the AP are a minimum of the number who died.

I am not even sure if by the methods we could even consider this to be the bottom of the bell curve. Even if it were, you know what the bottom of the bell curve is good for? A starting point for your pencil to make a sharp upward stroke. That is it.

Clearly, these numbers are designed to please Americans and the Brits and a few others, whose support the Iraqi government still needs. Its hogwash. Its pandering. And its embarrassing that anyone from my country would swallow this hooey. First they got duped into supporting the war. But instead of learing the lesson, they opt to get duped again.

timorborder pretty much beat me to it.

Sarge: If McCain had won the election, the needed additional troops would already be there. Needed only because other nations refuse to take responsibility, I might add.

You must be the happiest man alive! You seem to see only what you want to see! That's bliss. Its like the last 6 years never happened!

The world economy was saved? I had heard it nosedived. Oh, but we were not reduced to a barter system, so its all good then.

Iran’s arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.

Tehran is equipped with Shahab-3 missiles which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers. Israel is about 1,000 kilometers west of Iran.

Shahab 3 is a medium range missle. If they have missle capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, it is not the Shahab 3.

So what is this malarky?

If the Iranians nuked Israel, all of Iran's Muslim neighbors would quickly tear it apart. Nuclear blasts around your country are not a joke.

I pretty much hate Japanese Tv. Its pretty boring stuff. And it sounds like this guy is a root cause. And it sounds pretty Japanese to keep people's attention by force rather than being genuinely interesting. What a charade.

Just more proof of the insanity of the guys in charge of the road rules and sign placement in Japan. You never know where a sign might be hidden, when you find it you may not be able to read the fine print if you have half a mind to look out for bicycles, pedestrians, other cars, cats, dogs, children chasing balls and telephone poles actually in the street. And if you do, I hope you remembered to properly adjust the clock on the dash, if you know how, because you have to know what time it is.

I can't blame the police for making a wrong turn. I have made several. But my priority number one is to not run people over, and the fine print on hidden signs will not deter me from that.

1.57 billion Muslims and even if they all joined forces they still would not have the money or resources to match American military spending and armament. But we are supposed to be wary of them Muslims.

Bad enough someone would try to steal a bicycle, but to think they were this justified in trying that they should get such revenge for being thwarted?

Can I blame all of America or is it only cool to blame all of Japan when bad stuff happens there?

The Japanese are so strict about nudity. Wait, no they're not. Yes, they are! No they're not! I can't seem to decide.

Church sanctioned mass murder of people trying end the mass murder of cell masses.

I am against late term abortions, but mostly because anybody too dumb or lazy to have done something sooner (like use BC) should just have the baby already and put him or her up for adoption. Or even learn responsibility and take care the baby herself, hopefully with a guy or even the guy.

But a fetus is certainly alive. So is a potted plant.

Who is more sick, the guy who neglects to inform the parents that he is having 3 children enjoying a sleep over at his place, or people who read about it and just have to imagine sex was involved? You just cannot put the words "man" and "girls" in a headline without JQP entertaining a lurid sex image on the spot. Sad people. And sick.

BurakuminDes -Absolutely! We are safe from all those 16 year old, handicapped female students with sticky fingers.

Not only 20/20 hindsight, because they did not know about her so clearly at the time, but you also left out the 29 year old male suspect, the main culprit in both crimes! Is this meant to be comedy?

Which means in 2009 she is 11. Old enough for plenty of the perves here.

How unfair of this website to make you have to bend over backwards while doing a half twist and a split in order to bash Japan in this way.

This new little fantasy foray is no more odd than going to watch a movie, or going to the colloseum to watch gladiators fight. You buy a ticket, you sit, you watch, you do nothing but imagine you are involved. It hardly matters if the actors are real or not. Its all the same.

Great timing for a book about her life now that it's over along with her career.

Its amazing how many great people have done drugs, and how many mediocre people haven't. Coincidence?

Police reaction was not to 'little old lady's purse snatch' but to a hit and run driver who at aprox. 0400 hrs severly injured an innocent guy.

I am not so sure. The article lacks detail. The purse snatching might have put them on alert so that this was possible at around four in the morning:

Police immediately dispatched a helicopter and 40 patrol cars carrying about 100 officers.

But that is just a tiny possible error in a post that was 99 percent spot on. I wish more people were as thoughtful as you anthony39. I would rather bicker over minor details than the big picture that most here completely missed.

I think the real joke is the people who talk and joke loudly while having no clue what it takes to set up a city-wide dragnet to make sure that suspects don't get away in the time it takes even one cop to arrive at a scene.

Its really easy to use your 20/20 hind-sight and say they over-reacted, but when you get middle of the night calls from panicky old ladies and people so completely out of the know like 90 percent of the people above including whoever wrote the article, well then you take the risk of overreacting. If you don't, suspects get away.

Most of you are so dumb, you don't when to complain or when to be thankful, so you just complain 24/7. None of you complainers are sticking your necks out to do this difficult job, and you simply don't have the mental faculties even if you wanted to.