Elderly Crime Wave Shocks Japan (From 2006)
From ‘Tabloid Tokyo 2. 101 Tales of Sex, Crime and the Bizarre from Japan’s Wild Weeklies:
- A 68 year old man is arrested in Osaka for mugging high school students
- A 65 year old man strangles his wife to death for calling him “not a man”
- A 70 year old man reacts with a chainsaw from the boot of his car when scolded in a convenience store for spending too much time browsing through the magazines.
What has prompted the crimes? Alienation and Anger.
Alienation: Families are breaking down. Elderlies are alienated. Men are affected the worst as they do not have the same social support networks as women (women’s tea circles).
Anger: Due to financial worries about rising costs of living, rising medical costs, shrinking pensions and the overall state of the country’s economy.
This trend might become a global problem. The issues that caused alienation and anger seem to be ever more present in other countries now too.
2 years ago