Stewart Gale comments

@Judy

You want them to search ALL bags?

I certainly don’t.

Do you realize how long it would take to get out of the airport after you have arrived back in Japan if they did that?

No thanks

Japan really is hard up for money.

Kwakiutler

You reckon they became Canadian citizens for the sole purpose of smuggling drugs in to Japan?

That sounds like complete nonsense to me.

How about the theory that they became Canadian citizens and at some point in their lives in Canada, they became involved in drug distribution?

@wallace

The arrest took place in November, the prosecutor just charged them, thus it being in the news now.

Japanese police are very fast to administer drug testing, in fact I remember a couple of years ago, a Japanese policeman was racing back to the police station to drug test a suspect when he knocked over and killed a pedestrian.

Of course, I don’t think he received any real punishment for it…..

It was considered extremely important to find a minute trace of cannabis in someone’s blood…

Wallace,

They never seem to reveal it, in any drug case

The vague term “stimulants” they solely use could be any one of at least four drugs I can think of.

@wallace

It’s called reporting the full facts of a story.

If it was a story about a murder, you would expect the way the murder was committed to be reported.

@Eastman,

With the exception of Singapore, please give us a modern example of a drug smuggler being executed in a 1st world developed country.

You can’t because it doesn’t happen.

So many people here seem to love capital punishment…..

You think so Wallace?

Yes, they were obviously mules.

I don’t think the drug king pin usually smuggles his/her own merchandise around the world.

FalseflagSteve

“That silly man”.

You mean the drunken thug that attacked a defenseless person in a wheelchair?

I trust and hope this individual is being named and shamed in the Japanese media.

Beating up someone in a wheelchair, it doesn’t get much lower than that.

Suspended sentences as I predicted yesterday.

How typical of a Japanese court.

Once again, the pro-capital punishment JT crowd fail to understand that you don’t get the death penalty for a single murder.

Stefan, a lot of people are as bloodthirsty as the killers they condemn.

I don’t have any faith in the Japanese police and the Japanese justice system.

Did he do it or was he just an easy guy to pin it on to get a high-profile case closed quickly?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict suspended sentences…..

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.