In a thought-provoking article in the February issue of Bungei Shunju, veteran journalist Kunio Yanagida ponders changes in the patterns of crimes committed by juveniles that have taken place since the end of World War II.
In the postwar years, poverty was the key factor driving youth crime. From the war's end through the 1960s, the homicide rate for juveniles was 2.0 per 100,000 juveniles. By the 1970s, with the improved standards of living and more families perceiving themselves as belonging to the middle class, the rate leveled off at 0.5 per 100,000 and remained fairly constant until the 1990s, when it began a slight upward trend.
Around the 1980s, children came under unrelenting pressure from parents to enter prestigious schools and find employment with well-known companies. Some young people cracked — like the teenager in Kawasaki who in November 1980 bludgeoned both his parents to death with an aluminum baseball bat.
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