Opinion

Screams of horror-struck people are heard ceaselessly in Japan. They cry out, “All I hear in the morning after a night’s sleep are news of crimes” and “We are living in constant fear of murder”.

According to a Japanese media outlet, 20 cases of murder and robbery occurred between late last year and January 19 this year in different parts of the country.

It is the reality of Japan that bloody killing of their relatives has become commonplace.

Last August, a 49-year-old woman living in Yamanashi of Yamanashi Prefecture was killed by her eldest son. The 29-year-old man who was arrested on a charge of murder admitted his guilt, saying he had intended to commit suicide after killing his mother. He added that as she told him to work and live on his own, he strangled her by a rope and stabbed her in the chest and stomach.

In Fukuoka of Fukuoka Prefecture a 74-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her grandson. The 30-year-old man who was arrested on a charge of murder is denying the charge, saying that though he stabbed her, he had no intention to kill her.

And in Hiroshima City, a 58-year-old man knifed his 85-year-old father to death. Asaminami police station of the Hiroshima Prefectural Police arrested the man who stabbed his father in the throat and face on a charge of murder. The killer had informed the police by himself of the killing.

And in order to get insurance money, a man who killed his parents left their bodies in his house for dozens of days and a man poured hot liquid over his 8-month-old daughter to death.

Meanwhile, other outrageous homicides occurred one after another. A woman smothered her son by cupping his mouth and nose, a man and his wife wielded knives at each other and a grandson killed all his family members.

As murder cases arise in succession, Japanese people are unwilling to receive guests at home, shun others in streets and are even wary of their relatives and reject them.

Once, a murderer said in his statement: “For me, money was more precious than my parents. I had nothing to fear and regret if I could get money. So I killed my parents.”

A university professor deplored that the mode of existence in which the weak fall prey to the strong and extreme misanthropy that are prevalent in Japanese society reduce people to beasts and mentally deranged monsters who do not honour their parents and have no elementary human morals.

These are the true colours of the corrupt and cruel Japanese society.

Murder has become a trend in Japan where people are antagonistic and hostile to each other and even kill their blood relatives.