Safety in Japan

A suspiciously bulky woman warns us about fires (from a safety pamphlet given to us by - if I remember correctly - the JET folks in Tokyo.

"Japan is safety country" (sic) is the mantra of many a native (usually in contrast to "gaikoku" (literally "foreign countries"), usually meaning America, which we are led to believe is unbelievably dangerous). Most books about Japan will include the mandatory story of the lady who left her purse or passport on the train/on a bench, only to find it sitting just where she left it or have it returned with all the contents intact by a smiling policeman. And, to a large extent, the claims are true.

Actually, I myself have accidently left my back door open, with thousands of dollars, my new guitar, and new computer in plain sight with no problems whatsoever. Even when I just arrived in my prefecture - in what I think was an acting out of subconscious desires - left my 10lb bag full of Tokyo JET orientation material on the train, the police - from another prefecture over - tracked me down and I got the stuff back. Yay.

However, you can never be too safe, apparently, as loudspeakers and signs constantly warn you of even the slightest transgression. Stay on the escalator. Don't touch this. Etc. This toothpick-warning, taken from a chopsticks wrapper, is emblematic of the perception of safety in Japan. While this might seem reminiscent of the "coffee is hot" warnings you get at McDonald's, suing really isn't an attractive option here as it is back home. The perception here is, if something happens to you, it causes trouble for the rest of us, so don't let anything happen to you.

To tell you the truth, while I don't miss a lot of things about Canada, I was surprised to find myself almost missing this: you are walking down a street, but there's some shady characters lurking in an alley. Or, there's a woods, but you don't want to go in because you know some weird people might be in there. However, here, due to various cultural factors (most due to the relatively conformist lifestyle that ensure everyones will be at work / school / sleeping during a certain time period), you never see this. Never. You pass the woods and you know there no-one in there. You can pass by alleys and they're empty. There's no weirdos lurking around. By the way, I figured out that it wasn't the crazies that I missed, it was simply having people around.

This is because, as I mentioned in another post, there's no-one in this town. If you visit here, you'll see - this place is that Twilight Zone episode. Every time I see this road safety boy (for school crossings, I guess), from afar, I think, "Oh, this place isn't so bad. There's somebody over there." Yet, 9 times out of 10 it turns out to be this misshapen safety freak. Speaking of road safety, well....many streets don't have street lights. Many roads are wide enough to accommodate only one car. Many cars have TV's in them in the middle of the dash. Many drivers talk on the phone while driving (maybe about what's on TV!). However, if you're in the car veering around dark narrow streets it may feel dangerous, but I've seen only one accident (I'll tell you about it under the "Drinking" section). Perhaps TV's in cars were to blame for what happened to this safety kid:

This is not to say that the place is 100% crime-free. For example, though I stated that you never see anyone in the woods, I passed this sign near the bike path by my house. It says, bascially, "Be wary of chikans. If there's danger, call 110." The word "Chikan" (made of two kanji characters meaning "foolish" and "man - negative nuance") is Japanese for "pervert" or "molester". So, there may be perverts in the woods in Japan. There are definitely perverts in the woods in Canada, as my mom can confirm. Out walking the dog one day, she ran across a dude furiously pleasuring himself amongst the trees.

These chikan are most well-known for train activities. They're metrosexual pervs! At rush hour, Japan's trains are the most crowded in the world. Chikans take advantage of this close proximity to grope women standing nearby. To combat this, the train companies have instituted "women only" cars, but whether this has been successful or not is in dispute. For one thing, most chikan crimes go unreported due to the victim's negative perception (shame) about the incident (there are tales of foreigners who recognize an incident and point out the chikan, only to be ignored by everyone, including the victim. Causing a scene is not appreciated here). For another, many women apparently still take the shared cars, stating that there is a lack of space due to too few "women only" cars. Another train-related pervert is the businessman who reads "hentai manga" (dirty comics) in full view of women and children. Here, it must be noted that this is not Mickey Mouse stuff, it's pretty extreme (though the naughty bits are censored). Finally, though I have met many women who tell me about their chikan experience, I've never seen one touching someone, nor have I seen Comic Book Guy. However, again due to public restraint about reporting an assault, it is more than reasonable to assume that the assault figures - both physical and sexual - are in truth higher than reported.

This underreporting (or non-reporting) is also present in schools. Ijime (bullying) is currently a hot topic in education. However, it seems to me that this is socially sanctioned. Yes, it's a stereotype, but the society really does encourage conformity. There are famous cases of teachers and even principals of schools disregarding and even participating in violence towards students. Yet, the only reason this appears to have become an issue is that students have been writing suicide notes addressed to the board of education, and killing their parents as well as themselves. I mentioned before that a girl at my school cuts herself, and there have been suggestions of domestic violence here and at other schools. However, the attitude is "that's not our business". So, school might not be so safe for the students.

As far as protection at school, we have one of these sitting in the principal's office. It's called a "sasumata". What is its purpose? Well, basically to keep at arms length any intruder that might be foolish enough to challenge any principal - ours is a 65 year old woman - wielding such a mighty weapon. You might be thinking, "sure, but what if the crazy person has a gun?" and, well, that's a good question. Regardless, most schools have a training day in which one teacher acts as the assailant and another mans the sasumata. Some schools even film this drama as a training film. Yes, I would love to see this and no, I don't have any copies of such a film. Interestingly, we actually had an intruder visit my junior high school twice recently. The first time he had, oddly enough, a bag full of ice creams, and was wandering around the staff room. The second time, he demanded an application form, due to his strong desire to be employed here. I didn't see him either time but, when I suggested, "Hey, why didn't you use that sasumata thing?", some teachers laughed. If you're crazy, no sasumata. If you have a gun, no sasumata. You have to be just crazy enough, or maybe have a knife. Maybe that guy had seen one of those "You don't have to be crazy to work here...but it helps!" mugs here or something. Which would explain the application form.

Like any other, the country does have it's share of crazies. They are at least as spectacular as those in America. There was a cannibal. And of course the cult that wanted to douse the Tokyo subways with sarin gas. Recently, the ijime fallout has been reflected in child violence. There was the kid who left another kid's head at the school gate. And recently, I recall reading something about a kid who showed up at the police box with his mother's head (at the time, they confirmed he had a head, but couldn't confirm that it was in fact the head of his mom.) Another recent crime, a bit closer to home, was the murder of an English teacher in Tokyo. Before ending up buried in a sand-filled bathtub on his balcony, she had agreed to teach private lessons. To a guy who had been stalking her. At his house. You don't want to blame the victim, but wtf? Anyway, the killer managed to get away, running bare-footed down the street.

Perhaps he was a victim of the pressures of society here that drives people to absurd lengths. I saw a rather depressing documentary about how popular sucide is in Japan. The Aokigahara woods near Mt. Fuji is a popular place for those with no hope to simply wander off. The doc featured a cab driver who had let people off there. They didn't ask him to wait. Jumping before oncoming trains is another method. Apparently, the charming, almost cartoonish tones that each station plays are meant to cheer up the downhearted (there's another page that has tons of train sounds, but I can't find it. If you do, please let me know. It even has a related train recording: "Chikan wa hanzai desu" (chikans are criminals)). Following Japan's groupthink method, there are even suicide clubs and webpages, in which folks organize and check out as a group. So, apparently one can even be a danger to oneself here.

So, besides the perverts, crazies, and terminally depressed, what other threats to safety exist? The all-natural kind! Earthquakes. Tsunamis and typhoons (both so natural to Japan that the words were imported into English). I've not felt that latter two yet. However, I did get caught in some weird freak dust storm. It was the only day the students were allowed outside for lunch. This was because of hanami (flower viewing) of the first cherry blossoms in Japan. The students surrounded the baseball diamond, sitting on mats and eating their boxed lunches. Late as usual, I walked across the diamond with my freshly-purchased combini (convenience store) lunch. Suddenly, students lunches were about twenty feet in the air. I was surrounded be a column of dust. It was wacked. Students were screaming and stuff was flying everywhere. The teachers were stunned because I just laughed and kept on slowly walking. I just figured, oh, I guess this is a dust storm or mini-hurricane or something. You could actually see a tornado of dust. Then, just as suddenly, it was gone. Later, I emptied handfuls of dirt from my new-from-Thaliland pants pockets.

My first earthquake experiences, which I was kind of looking forward to, were anticlimactic in comparison. The first was when I was simply woken by the bed shaking. I though I had dreamt it until I checked the net later that day. The second time, I heard the neighbors running around upstairs and then running down the stairs. Except, they weren't. The entire house was shaking. This only continued for a matter of seconds, but it is frightening to realize the ground you're standing on is so unstable.

As noted at the beginning, there's a perception that crime is for the other countries. Thus, there's a feeling that crime - along with disease - is imported along with visitors to the country. This is reflected in media such as TV shows, which seem to report only selective news from other countries (I often hear about murders etc. from co-workers), along with an almost imperceptible "thank god that could never happen here" attitude. American visitors are surely familiar with the "Do you have a gun?" query. Recently (just after the school shootings in the States), despite my assurances that I was only a harmless Canadian, I was even asked this question by a wary cabdriver. Dude, I've never even seen a fucking gun. The recent "mook" (magazine book) Gaijin Hanzai Ura File (basically "foreigner criminal underground file") skipped any issue-skirting and brought its concerns right out in the open: foreigners - here mostly meaning Chinese and blacks - are flouting the laws, taking "their" women, and causing havoc! It wasn't so much the outrageously racist concept (and articles and pictures, etc.) that was offensive to many foreigners here, it was more the fact that the mook was so widely available: not only in the convenience store Family Mart (ubiquitous in Japan), but even on Amazon.co.jp! After all, racism exists in many countries, but it was surprising (and disappointing) to find it so unchallenged here (there are hate-speech laws against this kind of stuff in Canada, for example). You can read more about it here if you'd like.

So, you are safe here. Unless you're a woman. Or a student. Or a Japanese. Or a foreigner. You are safe.

Note: that last part reminds me, I was recently stopped by the satsu (the po-lice) again. Despite our photos/info/etc. supposedly being on record at the station, some other ALT's here have been stopped up to 5 times. I was walking home from school. A police car passed me on the otherwise empty (as usual) road. Knowing how the police "think" (1. we are bored, 2. there's somebody we can get away with hassling, 3. Go!), I knew they'd try to be clever and wheel around and come up behind me. Lo and behold. I was waiting at the light when I hear a motor idling behind me. Despite the fact that there's no cars for miles, I wait until the light turns green. Then I wait a few seconds more so's they can't come up with any nonsense. I sloooowly trudge across the street. At the other side, a car suddenly passes me, the two cops jump out and ask if they can speak to me. They ask for my info, so I whip out the foreigner ID card which we are legally obliged to carry with us at all times (if you don't have it, you may go to jail and/or pay cash money). From the focus of the questions, I get a sense that these guys just want to speak English. But no free lesson today, Kento - from now on it's Japanese only baby! After I ask what the problem is, the main cop's eyes shift back and forth so fast it looked like he was watching pro ping pong. "Well....you were walking across the road....and....you had your head down...and...you were walking slowly...so..." he looked up, triumphant that he was on the verge of sucessfully manufacturing a semi-coherent reason for stopping someone so obviously doing nothing untoward "We thought you were lost!". Later, when a (Japanese) ex-gf came to visit, I told her this story. "Oh, that was very kind of them", she told me. So, I guess I don't have to be worried about being safe. Japan is safety country.