Stewart Gale comments

And, a final point which probably explains things best to you.

I feel sad for the victims and their families while at the same time I feel real anger towards the perpetrator of this terrible crime.

I think it is very common to experience both emotions at the same time in cases like this.

Rupert.

For what it’s worth, a tragic accident would make me sad.

A deliberate act of extreme and horrific violence, war crimes, violence against women and children - these things make me angry.

Rupert, do heinous crimes like this not make you angry?

They certainly make me (and, I would imagine most normal people) angry.

Who knows Mick, maybe the water wasn’t still. It could have been a windy day and the water was rough.

Maybe one of them got cramp which prevented him from swimming effectively.

Maybe they weren’t proficient swimmers in the first place.

For once, I will agree with the Japan Today “hang ‘‘em high” brigade who demand the death penalty for all sorts of crimes

This guy deserves to die, without a doubt.

Sick, twisted piece of dirt that he is.

@gurumick

Is that a serious question?

How do you drown in a big body of water?

@Tokyoliving

Justice and Japan in the same sentence?

You made me laugh there.

And we thought Japan’s recreational drug laws were archaic and completely inappropriate in 2023…..

Koreans who legally smoke weed in, say Thailand or the States can be prosecuted when they return to Korea.

That’s ridiculous.

Meanwhile, as in Japan, people are encouraged to drink alcohol heavily. Despite the problems associated with it, such as liver and heart disease, domestic violence, drink driving, anti-social behaviour…

This Nobuo Komiya has probably never bought a box of matches in his life, let alone smoked a joint, yet his is the voice of authority to Japanese people on this subject.

Complete brainwashing.

It’s backwards and pathetic.

Change their name, brush it all under the carpet, pretend it never happened.

Yeah, that’s a great idea.

Reading about Japanese politics is so depressing.

I can’t remember a time when the government and Prime Minister’s approval ratings were anything other than poor in Japan, yet the LDP get re-elected in every single general election.

@carpslidy

How do you define “the best fans in Japan”?

Just about every fanbase in Britain thinks they are the “best fans”.

@kurisupisu

Do you think his having had some kind of mental trauma would make his actions excusable?

@Jay

It’s not so amazing that Brand has more subscribers than there are newspapers printed daily in the UK.

In common with most countries, far fewer people read printed newspapers these days in the UK

Most people read their newspapers online.

It’s not a nice way to live at that age Jaswinder, from what I’ve seen

Curled up in a hospital bed, tubes everywhere, body shrunken in size, no idea of where they are or what day it is.

They can charge him with drunk driving too.

People aren’t supposed to live that long, it’s not a good thing for Japan and its economy at all.

We are all paying for this with our overinflated health insurance contributions every month.

And, as someone wrote above - a lot of these people are merely vegetables being kept alive by life support machines. I’ve seen them when I was hospitalised.

@Kaowaiinekochanknaw

Are you suggesting there has been some kind of miscarriage of justice in this case? If so, on what grounds?

Furthermore, I find it very difficult to agree with your opinion that a false rape accusation is worse than rape.

They don't mess around with sentenicing in the US.

That would probably have been a suspended sentence in Japan.

If it even made it to court.

*for a crime like this

@mountainpear

In the west, the sentence for a crime like would be about the same. In Japan however, where we are used to seeing murderers get little over 10 years and sex offenders getting no more than slaps on the wrist, it does seem high.

The justice system in the country just feels so random.

@tokyoliving

You seem to be obsessed with capital punishment and “the gallows”.

Have you ever heard of a case like this, where no one died, resulting in the convicted person being executed?

I haven’t.

For such a bloodthirsty person, you seem quite ill-informed about crimes and their typical punishments.

@finally rich

What are you talking about?

Are you suggesting that children raised by a single mother don’t know the difference between right and wrong and aren’t raised to understand risk and danger in society.

Absolute nonsense that one might have expected to hear in 1823, not 2023.

@Speed

This is the testimony of a prosecution witness, brought in to court with other witnesses to give examples of Spacey’s patterns of behaviour.

Spacey isn’t on trial for the incident described here.

15% of Japanese paper money has traces of cocaine in it? From it being used to snort cocaine?

I find that figure hard to believe.

@itsonlyrockandroll,

What you wrote sounds perfectly reasonable and sensible.

However, in Japan these things seem to be swept under the carpet to save people’s face and potential “embarrassment”.

On a side note, it’s curious and slightly concerning to see how many down votes there are here on comments expressing disgust at Kitagawa’s alleged behaviour.

I hear you Stephen.

There are indeed many amateur Colombos here.

There are also many who seem very much in favour of the death penalty for any murder / manslaughter case

I’ve even seen the death penalty being demanded for a death by dangerous driving incident on these pages.

Stephen,

Innocent until proven guilty is what we are used to in the West.

However, I’m pretty sure in the Japanese justice system you are immediately presumed guilty and have to prove your innocence.

Leo T

It’s not really relevant what the argument was about, nothing can excuse what he did.

He won’t be locked up for life and he certainly won’t face the death penalty.

He’ll likely receive a custodial sentence of between 10 and 15 years, based on similar cases.

Yes, that’s too lenient.