jewel comments

I think it is too quick to determine if this were neglect or not. I dont know if the ppl commenting are actual parents or not but I think any parent who is not obsessively over protective can see how this could happen. With 2 year olds, you can just turn your back to pick up something & they can get into something. You can be watching them on the other side of the room and before you can get to them, they can get into something. You can quickly use the restroom & come out and they are in to something. They can wake up before you and get into something. This is the nature of a toddler. Of course parents need to be alert all the time and have things put up and away but you would be amazed at how clever 2 year olds are about getting into things. Anyway, this was a smart girl to duck down and stay down rather than panic and try to run. I cant imagine the horror the conductor must have felt when he couldn`t stop the train soon enough and passed over the child. That must have been horrible.

"Who is to say the 'Father of the decade' was not the main reason this kid decided to off himself? If he was such a great parent why did he not realize his 13y/o son was suicidal?"

That is really an unfair statement. For one, the father may have known the son was having problems and perhaps the father had tried to encourage his son, or perhaps the son was just keeping his problems all bottled up inside and the father had no idea. When you were 13 did you tell your parents all your feelings? I didnt tell mine. I think around 13 teens begin trying to assert their independance from their parents so they dont run to their parents to tell them everytime they have a problem anymore. I know there are exceptions but many teens are like that. We don`t have enough information to make such a harsh judgement call on this father who DID give his life for his son.

"yeah...losers" Stirfry, it is attitudes like this that mean they are damned if they do and damned if they dont. I hope you never face long term unemployment, but if you do, you might have your eyes opened to the fact that no everyone who is unemployed is a loser. Sometimes companies just close. Sometimes there are just financial cuts in the company that force the company to let ppl go despite the fact that the ppl are good workers. Sometimes there are unscrupulous employers who dont want to pay the cost of retirement benefits or they want to put their unqualified relative in a qualified, experienced person`s place so someone gets unfairly cut. Not every unemployed person is unemployed because they came to work drunk or overslept every day. Once one becomes unemployed, tries hard to get another job, but eventually runs through all their savings and still has no job, they are put in a very difficult situation which often makes them lose hope. These ppl are not losers. They can be good ppl who have fallen to difficult circumstances.

Midnightpromise, I have no idea what the options were for these 3 but I imagine IF they were jobless with no money left, they FELT these were the only 2 choices they had left, and perhaps in reality that was their only options left. I dont know, but I do think for ppl to resort to suicide they must feel somewhat forced into the decision based on their personal circumstances. I cant imagine ppl choosing suicide if they could see a better way out. There may be a better way out but I don`t think they see it. Therefore, I can have pity for such ppl.

Wow, that is pretty cold to call them "suicide losers". Would you cheer them on if they chose a life of welfare instead or a life of homelessness or a life of mooching off their parents? I don`t think they were losers at all. I think they were just people that lost hope and perhaps their means of making a living to support themselves. Some people will continue living by losing their pride to poverty and others try to maintain their dignity by just checking out of this world and not putting a burden on others. I feel sorry for anyone who is put in a position where they have to choose between mooching and death. It seems to me most of these suicides are about joblessness, poverty, and a lack of hope.

This is tacky and completely senseless. You don`t invite someone to your home who you have tortured, starved, and brutalized, and then tell them to apologize. It is just tacky and inconceivable.

This is an utter shame to America for a high level politician to snap at a mere college kid in a 3rd world country like this. Ppl say she had jet lag, well if you talked to your English student like that would you get slack for calling it jetlag? Or if you talked to a business client like this, would your boss give you slack when you said "I had jetlag". No. We are expected to conduct ourselves professionally even when we are tired. Yet, shes supposed to be a worldwide experienced traveler so she is supposed to be able to conduct herself as a professional and a good representative of America despite having jetlag. Ive worked in customer service when Ive been as sick as a dog and have had customers CURSING at me because of a mistake someone else made on the other side of the country, but I never raised my voice at them and I always treated customers with courtesy, but Im a little "nobody" and I handled myself 1000 times better than she did and Ive seen other little "nobodies" do likewise. She wasnt cursed at. She was a guest and treated her host like trash. Jetlag is not an excuse for a Secretary of State to be rude and hateful. If she cant handle jetlag, she needs to step down from the job b/c I dont want someone like this representing me and my fellow Americans b/c this is not the way most Americans are.

I cant believe someone was jailed for this. Of course, what he wrote was crazy and horrible, but that shouldnt make it a crime because it is just his thoughts. How far will this policing of thoughts go? I mean technically anything could be interpretted as offensive and hateful. This is a crazy, oppressive law. Unfortunately it sounds like other Western countries are going or about to go down this same oppressive path of thought control. I don`t see anything good coming out of this.

Im surprised a late term abortionist would go to church and be an usher. I wonder what he was thinking during the services. Well, I guess its no different than members of the mafia going to mass. At first I wondered how someone could kill another in a church, but maybe that was a statement too about the heart of a church that lets a late term abortionist have a leadership position within the church. I suppose the killer did not think well of the abortionist or the church.

"I hope US will be stuck in the third vietnam!" Dragonczar, do you really mean that? That is a horrible, heartless statement. I could understand if you wished the American government to fall but another Vietnam where innocent people on both sides are tortured and killed? Do you realize the cruelities that NK inflicts on its own people much less what it would do to an enemy? Do you really wish for families and lives to be permenantly destroyed while government officials sit in their offices happily eating bon bons and steak? Many men sent to Vietnam went there against their own wishes and are still paying the price today. It mentally destroyed many strong, healthy young men. WWII vets returned from the war changed but mentally whole but Vietnam was a different story. The homeless, mental wards, alcohol and drug abusers are filled with Vietnam vets, and the parents, wives, friends, and children of these vets have had to suffer too. Why would any human being wish something so horrible on another human? Remember that the military are often just used as pawns by the government leaders. If you have something against America, then direct your anger at the leaders not the people. Im an American and I dont wish the horrors of war on anyone including the NK people. And I don`t wish such cruelty on you either. I think surely you just wrote rashly without truly considering the impact of what your wrote.

This is so sad especially since the boy has already been taken into custody twice before. I wish the reporter would have not been so careless in reporting though. The reporter could have easily found out if the man had been working that night or not. Also I wonder if the 2 other abuse incidents came from this same man or the mother. Anyway this is really sad, and I agree w/USARonin and Sydenham that the mom bears a LOT of responsibility for this. I do think more abuse comes into play when a nonparent is put in a parenting position. Single parents shouldnt expect their kids to automatically fall in love, respect and obey the new parent. But that is the position the child is put in and when it doesnt happen the new inexperienced parent whose not at all equipped to deal with the resistence and baggage that child is carrying often overreacts. It is too much to ask of the child or the new "parent". The single parent bears responsibility, but of course the abuser doesnt get off the hook. They should get out of the relationship before they explode and admit theyve bitten off more than they can chew. If they stay, then they are choosing to walk on thin ice and must learn to accept and be patient with a troubled and perhaps difficult child.

I think we are in complete agreement Space Monkey. I also posted about society contributing to the confusion of what is right and wrong for young people. Society gives many mixed messages. So if teachers shrug at kids jabbing an adults bum but some adults in the neighborhood say "dame", how is a child to learn if it is really right or not? Maybe the message is it is okay to jab a teacher but not a neighbor. There are many mixed messages society gives about pregnancy as well so we have to share some blame here. Anyway I hope the whole school learns a lesson from this. I would also like to think these boys can grow into responsible citizens without having to be beaten and then thrown in jail. They at least deserve a second chance. If they continue the club then of course stronger measures should be taken, but I hope the principal`s judgement proves to work for the good.

I agree there is some freedom in not being a slave to money BUT one is also in a VERY vulnerable, powerless position where ones freedom can easily be stripped from　them. For example, if they have no job or home, their kids can be forceably taken from them. That is not joyful freedom. That is the worst cruelty of all. Also who wants to be reduced to begging for a mere bowl of rice? That is humiliating. I prefer death to that. And what parent wants to be in a position where they cant even afford basic school fees and supplies for their children, much less to be in a position where sending their child to high school is a mere dream due to no money or not knowing if they even have enough to feed their child 3 meals/day. Poverty is enslaving. Living modestly is fine, but poverty is not unless one is single and just living with no responsibilities and life is just an adventure. Lots of young adults can live on little and have fun but once they settle down poverty does not look good at all.

Jonnyboy,Spacemonkey does make good points, but we have to remember that all countries have abuse and bullying. Japan is unfortunately not alone in this area. So in that respect all countries have a rottenness on the inside as well as a little polish on the outside, but the point I want to make is even if there is some rottenness in the kids (I do think they were very wrong), overly punishing them will do more harm than good. I dont know why people want to throw kids in jail when kids are reformable outside of prison. Also, even though I agree with things Spacemonkey wrote, I think he was making a one sided observation. I have also seen the bad, but Ive seen the good too. Ive been fortunate to always have teachers to tackle problems right away if there is even a hint of bullying. Ive seen teachers go over and beyond the call of duty for kids, and Ive seen teachers here with full control of their classrooms and not at all afraid to discipline. In fact, the first day of school my sons principal made it very clear that he is nice when kids are good, but if they step out of line they better be afraid, and he has lived up to his word. So Spacemonkey paints an aspect to some Japanese schools but not the full picture. We also have to remember when looking at this picture there are cultural differences in what people define as disciplined, but that is another discussion.

What happened to pulling the troops out of Iraq? Why can`t politicians see the desparation of their own ppl? Americans are losing their jobs in one report I read at the rate of 500,000/month while others are losing their homes. At the same time social security benefits are being cut and other benefits are being cut leaving Americans in desparate places economically yet the administration thinks nothing of spending 83.4 BILLION dollars overseas for a very questionable cause when its own ppl are in desparate need. That is sad.

Reading comments here makes me remember why Im glad to be in Japan. I dont know if the ppl commenting here have children or not but the reactions are pretty extreme. The reactions are probably coming from ppl from countries, like myself, with high crime rates. Japan has a low crime rate compared to the rest of the world for a reason. I think it is because the ppl try to nuture the children (no ones perfect) and they tend to carefully consider situations before acting. To make a blanket statement that these kids had bad parents isnt fair. We dont have enough evidence to know that. Teens often foolishly do things that their parents would never approve of or have taught them not to do. We cant condemn parents so quickly. Also, I think throwing kids in juvenile hall often does more harm than good, and the harm can have life long effects on the person which in turn can have lifelong effects on society; then those effects can be recycled to the next generation or two. Adults are expected to know better, but kids still need to be guided, trained, and handled with much care. Prison isn`t the answer for most kids.

Peachy, I see any argument on this subject as potentially slippery because there are no firm answers in society as to whether they were tampering with a life or not. So if the adults cant agree then we cant expect kids to have it all figured out. Society is partly responsible for not demonstrating a clear message. For ex., when my stomach was sticking way out in pregnancy and I was on the train, the majority of the time, no one got up from the reserved seats to give me my entitled seat. It begins with small messages like this as to whether society respects a pregnancy or not. When healthy adults take these seats and refuse to give them to the old, crippled, or pregnant, we are teaching our youth a lesson so to turn around and lecture, imprison, or beat them as some have suggested is hypocritical when we finish that and then make a pregnant woman stand while we take her seat. I would take this a step further and say this problem for the boys isnt just limited to miscarriage. The problem is about valuing life in general. For ex., the problem began with the boys feeling wronged by being seated next to the developmentally disabled which indicates they didnt understand the value of the disabled lives. It doesnt mean the boys are bad. It just means they havent learned to value "weaker" ppl. This is due to immaturity, inexperience, and ignorance. Actually the teacher is partly responsible for this. She cant expect normal teen boys to automatically understand and have compassion for the disabled. They dont have that maturity. So she should have talked to them ahead of time and educated them. Then she should have allowed opportunites for the boys to get to know and do things with the disabaled kids before just seating them together and magically expecting the boys to automatically start assisting those next to them. And what about the disabled? Maybe they didnt want to be assisted. To automatically assume they cant do things for themselves can devalue a person as well. These were unrealistic expectations to put on these immature boys. Even adults who are unfamiliar with various disabilities would not know how to assist without being told. Our kids have to be taught as well as shown through our own actions as to how to value others. We cant expect them to automatically know. The boys were wrong, but I dont think they realized how wrong they were or even if they know now why they were wrong. I hope they know why but I don`t know.

If adults in this forum argue over whether a fetus is a life or not, how can we expect immature, reckless teen boys to consider the seriousness of their actions? Where do we think they are getting the idea that this is harmless from? The messages in society confuse young people. Medically some will say what was in the teachers stomach was just a blob of cells, so to cause them to discharge would seem harmless enough to these boys who have no emotional attachment to those cells. For others they would say it is a potential life that could be guiltlessly removed (aborted), so again if that isnt murder then it seems harmless enough to play some harmless pranks on the teacher that could make this thing be discharged. Then others would say this is a life but legally they are wrong and to some those who want to call it a life are offensive and intruding on a womans rights. So I dont think these boys are all to blame. Society gives mixed messages. There is no clear right and wrong message being given by society in regards to a fetus. Scientists mash up a fetus to do medical research. Abortion clinics have thrown fetal waste in garbage cans which is not what we do with a life not even the life of a despised criminal so why should we expect these kids to automatically regard what is in this woman`s stomach as a life that must be protected? We have to give kids a clearer message on life in my opinion.

"ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" is bs.

As long as I put my cash into their pot so they can live high on the hog, they shouldn't able to ask me for a thing."

I will second that one skipthesong! Americans generously give a lot of money to charity and voluntarily do volunteer work (not the FORCED volunteer work Obama is proposing), and Americans do all this on top of working much harder, in much less comfortable circumstances, and with considerably less pay than the fatcats on capital hill that stuff their wallets with tax payers money and then say callus things to unemployed people like "don`t expect something for nothing". I am utterly disgusted with these kinds of attitudes from government.

Yeah right! Americans cant expect something for nothing BUT government officials can. Obama can unguiltily give himself a $150 million inauguration party, hand out tax payer money by the millions to AIG, throw in big money in the "stimulas package" to save RATS but to tell a woman who loses her job "dont expect something for nothing", and on and on we could go. Great campaign promises only to find hes just another politician who could care less about the average citizen. Would he take a pay cut to use that money to pay for some of those teachers jobs? NO WAY! Would he give up plans to build a basketball court in the White House to use the money to help someone in financial need? NO WAY, his own brother is living on a $1 in Africa and he could care less so why should he care more about Americans losing their jobs and homes?

I also agree with nisegaijin. Sometimes education is over emphasized to the extent it drives kids to suicide or extreme mental stress. On the job training should not be discounted and government should not close the doors to those who are very capable of learning complex work skills (computers, mechanics, engineering, etc) but are not academically inclined. But whatever the path may be for the orphans I think society should present the full range of opportunities and offer them to orphans. If they choose the career path, then they will be held accountable by their boss but if they choose the education path, society which pays for the education must hold them responsible by setting limits like if they dont attend classes or dont keep up their grades, then they lose the "free" educational opportunity just as a parent should stop supporting any child that squanders their college funds. I don`t think society should hand out money freely without making sure it gets a return for the investment.

I agree that higher taxes simply does not spell "free". I don`t know why ppl think if the "government" gives something it is free. Ppl are the government and every aspect of government is paid for by the hard work (blood, sweat, and tears) of the people not the government officials. With that said, as someone who pays heavy taxes,I believe society should take care of orphans and if an orphan shows interest in higher education whether it is a technical school or college, I think we should pay for it and I think we can do that without raising taxes. I think it would be cruel to not help the orphans, but at the same time society must be sharply warned not to give up their kids so easily just because it will guarantee an education. Society should be reminded of the multiple wounds a child receives by being abandoned by their parents. Education will never make up for the deep emotional wounds.

TokyoHustla, poverty is caused by many things sometimes it is laziness and sometimes it is other things. What do you tell a 50-60 y.o. man who has spent his life in a company working HARD from early morning till late at night and then he is laid off? Do you tell him he is lazy? What do you tell him when he tries to get another job but employers say he is "too old"? Do you tell him he is just lazy? I`m guessing you are young. Not everyone facing economic hardships is there because they are lazy.

This guy truly deserved the death penalty. I wish he`d found peace and repentence before his death, but still he needed to be executed with or without repentence. It would have been the worst injustice ever to these innocent girls and their families to have let him off without death.

Western, do you really want the Japanese police to turn into western police who are brutal, controlling, and rude? I`ll take the Japanese police any day. Compare the crime rates of Western countries with Japan and see which is working more effectively. Sometimes overbearing police can drive volatile ppl to crime. No country his a 100% rate at solving crimes, and as I mentioned before there was a murder near my house and it was solved very quickly. I have no complaints about the Japanese police at all.

They should just take away the driver`s license until the person can pay the bill or let them do community service, but not send them to jail. Jail/prison should only be a place for real criminals, not a place for paying off traffic tickets.

Ive only had wonderful experiences w/the Japanese police & Ive been living here for about 12 years. There was a murder near my house, and they solved the case quickly. Whenever I need help, they bend over backwards to help me in a friendly kind manner even when I was simply asking for directions. In dealing w/bad ppl, Ive only seen them acting courteously. For ex. I once saw them take away a drunk that was disturbing the peace. They didnt slam him on the floor, talk gruffly to him, and handcuff him. They let him keep his dignity as he walked on his own between them to the station as they all chatted and joked along the way. It reminded me of the old Andy Griffeth show with the town drunk. I think in other countries, the police sometimes forget they are dealing with humans. Not all police matters reguire tough police action. I think the Japanese police have a better balance than some other countries in that regard. They seem to know when to be tough and when to treat an offender as a human who has made a mistake. I know there are some bad apples among them, but personally I`d prefer to fall into the hands of a Japanese policeman than any other country.