The brutal crimes committed by teenagers here recently have shocked the nation. In discussing the issue of juvenile violence, however, we seem to be making a basic mistake: that only those who have the right to vote are "adults." Considering various aspects of human physiology, it is unrealistic to say that a person is socially mature only after he or she is granted the franchise. In ancient Japan, sons of the warrior class celebrated their coming of age at the age of 15, while daughters married when they became 13 or 14 years old.

Teenagers are far more sensitive and emotional than grownups and have almost unlimited potential for development. What they lack are social experience and the so-called common sense that comes with it. But their adolescent sensibilities reject the uniform, semicompulsory "education" that is supposed to socialize them. Most adults who are accustomed to uniformity do not realize this. They do not understand that the information children receive through "education" is out of tune with their sensibilities and emotions. The disharmony is accentuated by the glut of information in our society.

History is full of anecdotes in which teens' brilliant inspirations jolted the straitjacketed adult society. Suffice here to cite only three examples: French poet Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), French novelist Raymond Radiguet (1903-1923), and French mathematician Evariste Galois (1811-1832).