On June 19th, five students from three of Japan’s prestigious universities were arrested for gang raping a woman after getting her drunk at a bar.
Apparently these five and others had a party promotion business/student society with 20 members. Gang rape was one of their sidelines. There’s a story in the Mainichi with details.
Last Thursday during a public debate on youth crime and the declining birth rate in Japan, a 57 year old Diet member, Seiichi Ota, said that the declining child population is due to Japanese men being afraid to commit to marriage. When asked by the moderator if that meant the university gang rapists did it because they lacked the courage to propose, Ota replied,
“Gang rape shows the people who do it are still virile, and that is okay. I think that might make them close to normal. I know I’ll get in trouble for saying that, though.”
Naturally, he did get into trouble. There was outrage from his party, the Prime Minister, and a lot of women legislators. He apologised publicly, so all will be forgiven soon and I’ll bet he gets reelected.
Posted by kuri at July 02, 2003 07:53 AMEven for me (I’m just onecitizen), Japanese political word looks strange. It means I’m a just housewife??
Posted by: Mieko on July 2, 2003 08:56 AMTotally disgusting! Japanese society has a long way to go.
Posted by: on July 2, 2003 02:28 PMPolitical Correctness has not reached Japan, but from my observations of politically correct speech in “western” societies it has not stopped ignorance, it has just stopped people from people from verbalising it.
Posted by: Tracey on July 2, 2003 03:48 PMGood point, Tracey. I always thought that Japanese didn’t voice their opinions (the tateme/honme thing) unless they followed the majority opinion. Maybe it’s different if you’re a Japanese politician.
Posted by: kristen on July 2, 2003 05:03 PMYou are right, Kristen. And I think every time they open their mouth, they seem to get in trouble.
The biggest trouble is, Japanese oldtimers have no respect in women. They only respect us as a part of household equipments.
