opinion

A family forms the most harmonious social structure as a living unit of relatives.

But people kill their kindred unhesitatingly in Japan.

An old man strangled his elder sister with a scarf in Tokyo Metropolis on June 14 and a woman hit her husband to death with a golf club three days later.

And a 35-year-old man killed his younger brother in Saitama Prefecture in late June by stabbing him in the back several times with a kitchen knife after a quarrel.

On July 8 in Shiga Prefecture, a man beat his old mother during a squabble. She died after being taken to hospital.

What is worse is that the murderers take their killings for granted.

A woman stabbed her father to death in Nagano Prefecture in late June and a man beat and kicked his wife violently before stabbing her in the neck to death in Tokyo Metropolis on July 3.

The slayers nonchalantly informed the police that they killed them.

Such criminal deeds of killing even their family members without hesitation in pursuit of their own interests are an inevitable outcome produced by Japanese society.

More and more Japanese have such outlooks on life as “I don’t need even family if it is for money”, “If I am well off alone, it is enough” and “I’ll live for myself”.

Japanese society, where human ethics are decided by money and extreme misanthropy is rife, is on its last legs and has no future.