Ken Holcomb comments

Yet, another creep. However, it would seem the woman is not totally without sin too.

Is anyone?

Many respondents here seem to want to blame the government on the declining birthrate.

To me this is more a citizen problem. A complete lack of national pride and care about the future of one's own country, combined with an apparent serious selfish tendency for not wanting to share one's life with anyone else, is the problem

The shrinking population will be a massive problem in the near future. The government should make a concerted effort to educate the population on the pending results of lower tax income, ie the end of social support programs, higher and higher medical insurance costs, and less money for the government to spend on infrastructure.

Basically the end of a modern Japan as quickly as the country became a "first world" country.

"We will create an environment in which income growth will outpace inflation and end the deflationary mindset" rooted in the country's experience with falling prices, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said before the tax cut was implemented.

Interesting that this story is immediately preceded by a story about rising prices on 614 food and drink items in June.

Confusing?

Planned confusion? Probably.

Unless I missed it, still no motive for the motive of this horrendous crime?

Sounds a lot like another political group in another country.......

GOP America.

Making a lot of noise with zero reasonable campaign ideas of their own.

All the obviously non-Japanese commenters going on about how standing in line is so "subservient", or how terrible the mountain is, etc, etc.

I thinks that's great. Stay away and keep your attitudes about other's culture and customs.

Those of us that enjoy a physical challenge, shared with others whom we may meet on the way, won't miss you at all.

Police are questioning the family members about the cause of the dispute.

A possible cause: unemployed 24 year old man(?) still living at home with mommy and daddy.

Time to grow up and get out, sonny

the mother has denied her son assaulting her from that admission it appears the son was not violent at all.

Or maybe mommy was just covering for her little boy, which may explain why he's still living at home....hmmm....

smithinjapanApr. 30  05:59 pm JST

"I stabbed him because he was being violent!" Wonder where the kid gets it from.

"...the kid..."?

He's 50. Not really a kid is he?

it's GW.....he possibly is visiting his parents.

The article clearly states,

The victim lives in the house with his father and mother who called 110.

So probably not just visiting.

None of this is an excuse for the father to stab his son, but maybe asserting some slightly more aggressive discipline at a much younger age would have solved the problem by encouraging the "kid" to move out and support himself, possibly 30 years ago.

Another of the, "did not intend to kill" claims. Is there a legal defense in Japanese law that allows such a claim to be made after an arrest?

Due to the stab wounds on the mother, assuming they were self inflicted, (hard to know as it wasn't specified in the article), was this another murder/suicide attempt?

Finally, who reported this incident to the police?

Lots of information left for the reader to speculate on. Not a good standard in reporting news.

This story is more an indictment of the stupidity of the men than the sleazy con-woman. But maybe that's the reason for the seemingly overly harsh sentence. The male dominant judiciary would certainly feel threatened by a woman with the wits to cheat so many of their kinsmen.

I've seen far less harsh sentences passed on far more insidious crimes reported on this source.

Another man on July 30 called out to a person whom he believed was a relative walking along a footpath to a rice field, but it turned out to be a "gorilla-type monster."

Got to wonder how his relationship with his relatives went after this story went public.....

But of course. The tried and true, "I did not intend to kill her." claim.

Really? Choke hold on one while fighting off another and having to be finally subdued by others indicates extrem, out of control anger, meaning he had no idea what his intentions were at the time. Not an excuse by any means. Definitely would not want this psycho working around my mouth with sharp instruments and drills

Today 07:59 am JST

Lost two choppers at the same time. There must be something fundamentally wrong with US designed aircraft

Today 08:35 am JST

good advice-return all of faulty overpriced and unreliable US made aircraft to seller and ask for refund.

dont fly with rubbish

Absolute ignorance and likely bigotry on display here.

Flying at night over open water at likely low elevation is a dangerous and difficult task.

Also both choppers did not go down at the same time. Read the article. The second one went down 25 minutes after the first, indicating they may have been searching for the first one after losing contact.

The article says there were no weather advisories issued for the area at the time, but as anyone who has ever been to sea knows, the weather can change dramatically very quickly.

Finally, since the two America haters above are more concerned with unsubstantiated claims of bad equipment, I'd like to offer my prayers for the safe return of all 8 crew members.

Beautiful!

49 year old unemployed "man" living at home with his elderly mother.

Might be some mentally competent issues here, but the frequency of these kinds of reports where the perp is of adult age, unemployed and living with their parents is a cultural problem that's not going to improve anytime soon.

Woke up my two Dobermans and then they proceeded to be on alert for the next two hours, making for a long night. Glad they're so protective, just need to work on their understanding of what's a threat and what's not

No Angie and Tyson, the leaf blowing across the yard is not a potential threat...

Please don't let the "porch pirate" craze take root here in Japan.

Yes. I know this is not the first time this has happened in Japan, but it's no where near as prevalent here, yet, as it is in other "1st world" countries.

OK, reading the comments above there seems to be a concensus that the thief was none too smart.

But what about the two second hand store owners/staff that purchased, then resold the bowl likely knowing full well it was stolen?

The kid got ¥1.8M from the first store. How much did that store owner get from the 2nd shop? And how much was the 2nd store owner expecting to profit?

I don't remember doing that, even though that is me on the security video carrying several packages that look exactly like the school's swimsuits.......hmmm.

Does this tactic actually work in Japanese courts? Rhetorical question. The answer is いいえ!

sakurasuki

Today 07:08 am JST

3-year-old on her bicycle without pedals nor break on public road, without her parent supervision now becoming drive fault?

Are you suggesting it was the child's fault? Of course it's the driver's fault for not being fully aware of his surroundings.

When one accepts their driver's license they then assume responsibility for ALWAYS being aware of pedestrians, animals and other driver's around them.

Should rhe child's parents have been aware of her playing in a street? Yes, but the article doesn't say the parents weren't in the area. It does say the driver was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving. Speeding? Looking at his cell phone while driving? Just not paying attention? All the above? We don't know, and may never know. But what we do know is a 3 year old child is dead and a 25 year old man will have to live with the fact that he killed her, for the rest of his life

..denied intent to kill...

Stabbed her in the chest with a knife, so exactly what was his intent? And where are these perps getting that excuse from?

He probably hadn't lawyered up before he was arrested, so is it just a cultural thing to attempt and/or succeed in killing another and then claim no intent to kill?

Ironic that this story falls in the Crime section, but the Nissan being delisted from a government handout program because they were cheating their sub contractors billions of yen over 2 years, (at least), is published in another section. White collar crime is still a crime, whether the media and government choose to see it otherwise or not.

point if view

..point of view.

Mayu Hasegawa, has admitted stabbing him with a kitchen knife but denied intent to kill.

Sure, stabbing someone multiple times with a kitchen knife, (paring or butcher??), is clearly not intended to kill. Merely draw attention to the knife wielding crazy person's point if view.....

Are these claimed "non intent to kill" claims actually acceptable in court?

Shinozawa has denied the allegation, saying there was no intent to kill.

Yeah, wrapping one's hands around another's throat and squeezing tightly while extremely angry could never be construed as intent to kill.......hmmm.

Metropolitan Police Department said, “His behavior was unbecoming of a police officer....

His behavior was unbecoming of an adult, much less a police officer.

この世に完璧な人間はいない。

There are no perfect people in this world.

A phrase I use on a regular and repetitive basis in my job as a wedding minister.

da Cunha

Today 04:29 pm JST

Jealous much?

It's been said, but how was this not already a requirement for those seeking to work with children?

My concern would be how accurate, inclusive and up to date will the government's records be, as there seems to be no sex offender register system in place here.