KOBE -- The May 1997 murder of 11-year-old Jun Hase in Suma Ward here shocked Japan and made world headlines for the sensational nature of the crime.

That shock soon turned to anger after police arrested a 14-year-old boy in the killing, sparking a national debate on juvenile crime, as parents, schoolteachers and the public pondered the forces that drove the youth to strangle, and later behead, his victim. The fatal attack on a girl earlier the same year was also subsequently blamed on the boy, who was suffering emotional problems and had allegedly killed cats and other animals before the slayings.

Today, the youth, known euphemistically as "shonen A," is incarcerated at a psychiatric center in the Kanto region. The fact that he confessed to the murder should remove any doubt of his culpability. Or should it?