The Wierdness that is Japanese Crime

I have long held the belief that Japan has some of the oddest crimes of anywhere in the world. To help back up my claim here is a recently reported crime in the Nagoya area.

Knife-wielding man cuts two schoolgirls' hair in Nagoya

AICHI — Police said Thursday that two schoolgirls had been attacked by a man who cut their hair with a knife in Nagoya on Wednesday. According to police, one of the victims, 16, was suddenly assaulted by a man and had her hair cut while she was walking through a park on her way to school around 7:20 a.m. The second attack occurred about 4 p.m. In that case, the victim, 14, said she was attacked from behind.

Police said the attacker used a 20-centimeter-long knife. Both girls said the man appeared to be in his 30s and was about 170 cms tall with brown hair. He was clad in black. The crime scenes were about 700 meters apart.


I think I will keep this space open to add more as I read about them. There are some unbelievable ones. Japan is rated as one of the safest places to visit, makes you wonder why the crimes that are committed can be so unusual. Perhaps when someone snaps here, they completely go off the deep end.

Take this one for instance, this is so silly. High speed "Scooter chase"

Four youths arrested after scooter pursuit in Chiba

Friday 12th December, 12:56 PM JST

CHIBA —

Police arrested and charged four teenage boys with dangerous driving and other violations of the Road Traffic Law on Thursday.

According to police, the boys called police from a public phone in Kisarazu City at around 3 a.m. on Nov 16, and reported that motorbike gangs were making a lot of noise. The four boys waited for the police, and when they arrived about 10 minutes later, took off on two scooters and played a game they called “Real Chasey.” The game involved one boy driving the scooter, zig zagging about while the other boy on the back provoked police with words and gestures.

The boys led police on a pursuit which included national roads and the boys ignoring traffic signals, and police lost them after five minutes. But they were able to identify the boys as all of them have been taken into custody before.

The boys – a welder, 17, a plumber, 16, a first year high school student, 15, and a second year junior high school student, 14, knew each other through the junior high school.

One of the boys was quoted by police as saying: “I love the thrill. I’ve done it more than 10 times this year.”

The first year high school student doesn’t have a license, and drove at speeds of only 10 to 30 kilometers per hour.

The boys claimed they came up with the name for the game, but there is a novel in the same name by Yusuke Yamada, which was made into a movie this year.