{"id":17465,"date":"2024-06-22T00:45:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T07:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17465"},"modified":"2024-06-22T01:30:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T08:30:37","slug":"robert-whiting-on-slaughter-in-saitama-adds-to-list-of-foreigners-murdered-in-japan-shines-light-on-social-issue-on-the-bishop-family-murder-case-an-underreported-event-in-saitama-in-2022-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17465","title":{"rendered":"Robert Whiting on &#8220;Slaughter in Saitama adds to list of foreigners murdered in Japan, shines light on social issue&#8221;, on the Bishop Family Murder Case, an underreported event in 2022 that I consider to be a hate crime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Books, eBooks, and more from Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (click on icon):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11452\" title=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Guidebookcover.jpg\" alt=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11335\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/japaneseonlyebookcovertext-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1298\" title=\"Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" alt=\"Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/inappropriate.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8577\" title=\"inappropriatecoverthumb150x226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/inappropriatecoverthumb150x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html#japanese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1700\" title=\"jobookcover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/jobookcover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemabstruso.de\/strawberries\/main.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2735\" title=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sourstrawberriesavatar.jpg\" alt=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?cat=32\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4921\" title=\"debitopodcastthumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/debitopodcastthumb.jpg\" alt=\"debitopodcastthumb\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12473\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-12474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FodorsJapan2014cover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"FodorsJapan2014cover\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<br \/>\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free<br \/>\n&#8220;LIKE&#8221; US on Facebook at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embeddedrcsmJapan<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n<p>Hi Blog. \u00a0A couple of weeks ago I met up with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Whiting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Whiting<\/a>, renowned author of books on Japanese baseball, and, most importantly, to me one of the best books on Japan &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.jp\/-\/en\/Robert-Whiting\/dp\/0375724893\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tokyo Underworld<\/a>&#8220;. \u00a0We had a nice chat.<\/p>\n<p>One of the topics that came up was the Bishop Family Murder Case in Saitama in during Christmas 2022, which didn&#8217;t receive enough attention as a hate crime. \u00a0Whiting takes it up on his Substack with characteristic thoroughness and historical contextualization, and he has given me permission to reproduce it in full on Debito.org in order to rectify that. \u00a0Read on. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/robertwhiting.substack.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe to his Substack here<\/a>. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"gmail-single-post-container\">\n<div class=\"gmail-container\">\n<div class=\"gmail-single-post\">\n<div class=\"gmail-post-header\">\n<h1 class=\"gmail-post-title gmail-unpublished\">Slaughter in Saitama adds to list of foreigners murdered in Japan, shines light on social issue<\/h1>\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-flexDirection-column gmail-pc-paddingBottom-16 gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-flexDirection-column gmail-pc-paddingTop-16 gmail-pc-paddingBottom-16 gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-gap-12 gmail-pc-alignItems-center gmail-pc-reset gmail-byline-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-gap-8 gmail-pc-alignItems-center gmail-_flexGrow_1w60r_230 gmail-pc-reset gmail-facepile\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-alignItems-center gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-alignItems-center gmail-pc-reset gmail-_faces_1civs_7 gmail-_size-40_1civs_15\">\n<div class=\"gmail-profile-hover-card-target gmail-_profileHoverCardTarget_1ypz6_50\"><a class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-_flexAuto_1w60r_233 gmail-pc-reset\" href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/profile\/74407732-robert-whiting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gmail-_img_16u6n_1 gmail-facepile-face gmail-_face_1civs_7 gmail-_size-40_1civs_15 gmail-_first_1civs_53 gmail-_last_1civs_57 gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-reset\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_80,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fce38e466-0e4a-4d61-abf1-e4873085fc9f_256x256.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"80\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-flexDirection-column gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-reset gmail-_color-pub-primary-text_1k90y_204 gmail-_line-height-20_1k90y_95 gmail-_font-meta_1k90y_131 gmail-_size-11_1k90y_35 gmail-_weight-medium_1k90y_162 gmail-_transform-uppercase_1k90y_242 gmail-_reset_1k90y_1 gmail-_meta_1k90y_442\">\n<div class=\"gmail-profile-hover-card-target gmail-_profileHoverCardTarget_1ypz6_50\"><a class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-reset gmail-_decoration-hover-underline_1k90y_298 gmail-_reset_1k90y_1\" href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@robertwhiting\">ROBERT WHITING<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-gap-4 gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-reset gmail-_color-pub-secondary-text_1k90y_207 gmail-_line-height-20_1k90y_95 gmail-_font-meta_1k90y_131 gmail-_size-11_1k90y_35 gmail-_weight-medium_1k90y_162 gmail-_transform-uppercase_1k90y_242 gmail-_reset_1k90y_1 gmail-_meta_1k90y_442\">JAN 08, 2023, reposted on Debito.org with permission of the author<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-gap-16 gmail-pc-paddingTop-16 gmail-pc-paddingBottom-16 gmail-pc-justifyContent-space-between gmail-pc-alignItems-center gmail-_flexGrow_1w60r_230 gmail-pc-reset gmail-_border-top-detail-themed_1w60r_47 gmail-_border-bottom-detail-themed_1w60r_50 gmail-post-ufi\">\n<div class=\"gmail-pencraft gmail-pc-display-flex gmail-pc-gap-8 gmail-pc-reset\">\n<div class=\"gmail-like-button-container gmail-post-ufi-button gmail-style-button gmail-state-liked\">\n<div class=\"gmail-label\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertwhiting.substack.com\/p\/slaughter-in-saitama-adds-to-list?utm_source=publication-search11\">https:\/\/robertwhiting.substack.com\/p\/slaughter-in-saitama-adds-to-list?utm_source=publication-search11<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"gmail-available-content\">\n<div class=\"gmail-body gmail-markup\" dir=\"auto\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>TOKYO \u2014 Tokyo was stunned in late December by the news of the brutal killing of longtime Japan resident William Bishop, a 69-year-old U.S. national, his 68-year-old wife Izumi Morita, and their daughter Sophianna Megumi Morita, 32. All three were found dead outside their residence in Hanno, Saitama, with multiple wounds early Christmas morning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Later that day, prefectural police arrested the Bishops\u2019 neighbor, a 40-year-old Japanese man named Jun Saito, at his residence around the corner believing he had bludgeoned the Bishop family to death with what was believed to be a hammer. Saito had barricaded himself in an upstairs room, and the police had to force their way in to apprehend him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The authorities said they had received reports of a man in black clothing carrying what appeared to be a hammer as he left the Bishop home on foot shortly after the murders.\u00a0They checked video cameras in the area and around the Bishop residence and discovered footage of a man in black clothing attacking a person.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Traces of blood on black clothing was confiscated at the Saito residence. Police also seized\u00a0multiple potential weapons, including an ax, at the suspect\u2019s residence, according to reports.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Although the three members of the Bishop family were found dead outside the property, blood discovered inside the residence suggested they were initially attacked indoors.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Police believe the victims were struck repeatedly due to multiple injuries found on their bodies which indicated a struggle. William Bishop\u2019s cervical area was severely damaged.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>There was a history of conflict involving Saito and the Bishop family, who had reported repeated damage to their car and property on half a dozen occasions, resulting in Saito\u2019s arrest three different times, although Saito was ultimately not prosecuted in any of the cases. According to the\u00a0Shukan Bunshun\u00a0of Dec. 30, repair damage to the Bishop family automobile cost \u00a51 million, forcing the family to keep their auto under protective cover in a garage behind a locked iron door. There were no reports of trouble with other individuals in the neighborhood.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>When police first arrested Saito in January 2022 for damaging the Bishop\u2019s vehicle, \u00a0they said that the Bishops told them they did not personally know who Saito was.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The house Saito was living in belonged to his parents, who reportedly moved out because of his violent behavior.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Prosecutors charged him with murder. Saito, in detention, denied the charges.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Although all the facts are not yet in, the suspect appears to be part of a troubled generation suffering from mental disorders, who dropped out of school and work in droves in the \u201980s and \u201990s, when Japan\u2019s economic bubble burst, Japanese firms retrenched and downsized, and jobs were not readily available. The Japanese government has identified over half a million of these, so-called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=hikikomori\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hikikomori<\/a>,\u00a0social recluses,\u00a0who live at home, passing their time on the Internet \u2014 the rise of which has contributed to their continuing isolation, remaining economically dependent on their parents, who, in turn, do not know what they can do to help their offspring find their footing outside of the household and try to hide what they view as an embarrassing situation.\u00a0Hikikomori\u00a0have failed to develop necessary social skills and are unable to adjust in a society that is very structured and sensitive to social stigma, one which fails to provide for social resources and professional treatment for mental illness, primarily because parents are too ashamed to seek it for their offspring.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>This has become known as the \u201c80-50\u201d problem in recent years as\u00a0hikikomori\u00a0children from the post-bubble era are entering their 50\u2019s and their parents are in their 80\u2019s, becoming less and less able to care for them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"gmail-captioned-image-container\">\n<div class=\"gmail-image2-inset\">\n<p><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gmail-sizing-normal\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8137a57a-6242-4ff8-ba92-ec239027fe73_1090x491.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1090\" height=\"491\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"gmail-image-link-expand\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>According to William Bishop\u2019s LinkedIn account, he was a native of Indiana, who first came to Japan in 1974, where he graduated from Sophia University in Tokyo. He then obtained a Master\u2019s Degree from Temple University in Pennsylvania and returned to Japan, whereupon he served as a trade representative for the state of Indiana, worked for Eli-Lily and started his own health care consultancy. He was a member of the Board at Temple University as well as a former chair of the health care committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Fluent in Japanese, Bishop described himself as having a wide range of experience in market access, communications, trade promotion and attracting investment. He was also an author. He wrote novels about the Old West in his spare time.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Bishop\u2019s daughter, who went by Sophianna Bishop, was a resident of Tokyo\u2019s Shibuya Ward, who was visiting her parents when the attack occurred. She worked at an advertising agency in Tokyo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Saito aspired to be a film director, but failed to complete his only film, \u201cThe Gift,\u201d a movie directed by Saito about a man with HIV, which he started with funds awarded by a film festival,\u00a0only to withdraw from the project midway due to \u201cemotional problems.\u201d He then began living a solitary life in the Saitama house.\u00a0(Bunshun).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Colleagues described Bishop as \u201cdedicated, hard-working and a real leader,\u201d someone who knew more more about Japan\u2019s health policy than anyone else. In Bishop\u2019s Linkedin account tributes flowed in. Abby Pratt, a fellow ACCJ officer, said, \u201cBill had a great sense of humor and was such a pleasure to work with, one of those people you\u2019ll never forget. I loved how he could seamlessly shift from his rich South Dakota twang to fluent\u00a0nihongo.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Simon Farrell, the former editor-in-chief of the ACCJ Journal, added, \u201cBill was well-travelled, generous, gentlemanly and empathetic, with a deep interest in Japanese culture and language.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Lance Gatling, head of Nexial, knew Bishop for decades and said, in an interview with Substack, \u201cHe was a prim American with a dry wit who was very\u00a0involved in ACCJ affairs, was VP for years. He was a solid citizen, one who had just bought that house five years ago and retired recently. He was a state rep for some years.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cBill was an inoffensive soul, hardly someone you\u2019d consider a bodily threat of any sort. A bit snippy in language at times, so what?\u00a0A 40-year old\u00a0hikkikomori\u00a0living in his parents\u2019 home alone for decades killed Bill, wife and 32-year-old daughter who was visiting. All three, some reports say it was a hatchet.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cI hope they hang him.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Murder is rare in Japan compared to other countries. Social civility and strict hierarchical codes of conduct are often cited as reasons for the low incidence of violent crimes in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>However, Japanese assaults on foreigners are not new in in the long history of Japan\u2019s relations with the West.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sonn\u014d j\u014di\u00a0was a rallying cry\u00a0and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s\u00a0that sought to overthrow the feudal Tokugawa shogunate and restore the Emperor of Japan to the throne. It literally meant \u201cBe Loyal To The Emperor; Expel The Barbarians.\u201d It was a reaction to the treaty signed in 1854 by the Japanese\u00a0bakufu, or government in place, opening Japan to trade under military threat from U.S. Naval Commodore Matthew Perry and his so-called Black Ships and was vehemently opposed in samurai quarters. It inspired a number of attacks against the Shogunate and attacks against foreigners in Japan by rogue samurai and entire samurai clans.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The most prominent such incident was the murder was of\u00a0British citizen Charles Lennox Richardson in 1862. Richardson was riding his horse with three other travelers, including a woman, through what is now Tsurumi Ward in Yokohama, when he encountered a retinue of armed samurai escorting the regent of the Satsuma Clan traveling in the opposite direction. Richardson failed to dismount and pay his respects, as required by local custom and law, despite being motioned repeatedly to do so.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cI know how to handle these people\u201d he was quoted as saying to his companions, according to the Japan Herald \u201cExtra\u201d of Sept. 16, 1862.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>He was subsequently slashed with a sword and fell from his horse. Several samurai finished the assault, hacking and stabbing at him with swords and lances. Two of Richardson\u2019s male companions were also wounded but escaped. The woman traveling with them was unharmed, a samurai sword barely missing her head, but slicing through her hair and hat, before\u00a0fleeing in a panic.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Richardson survived briefly before succumbing in a nearby peasant&#8217;s hut.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Richardson\u2019s wounds were described in a recent article by Paul Martin in\u00a0Japan Forward: \u201cThe whole body was one mass of blood; one wound from which the bowels protruded, extended from the abdomen to the back; another on the left shoulder had severed all the bones into the chest; there was a gaping spear wound over the region of the heart; the right wrist was completely divided, and the hand was hanging merely by a strip of flesh; the back of the left hand was nearly cut through; and on moving the head, the neck was found to be entirely cut through on the left side.\u201d\u00a0 (<a href=\"https:\/\/japan-forward.com\/the-british-in-bakumatsu-japan-the-namamugi-incident\/\" rel=\"\">https:\/\/japan-forward.com\/the-british-in-bakumatsu-japan-the-namamugi-incident\/<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"gmail-captioned-image-container\">\n<div class=\"gmail-image2-inset\">\n<p><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gmail-sizing-normal\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F12607e08-79b8-48e8-af80-9ee74e830b87_1280x853.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"gmail-image-link-expand\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Mitsubishi later curiously purchased the peasant hut and made it the HQ of the Kirin Brewery. Richardson is buried in a private plot in the Yokohama Foreign Cemetery.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>A plaque in front of an apartment building marks the spot of what is known as the \u2018Namamugi Incident.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The incident caused a great deal of alarm in the foreign community based in Yokohama, whose members argued that Westerners were protected under the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty which exempted them from local requirements.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>However, protests over the incident from the British Government were ignored so the British navy, in retaliation, bombarded Kagoshima, destroying many houses and sinking three steamships belonging to the Satsuma Clan. In the end, the Japanese\u00a0Bakufu\u00a0military government paid a substantial sum as compensation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Imperial rule was restored in 1868, under the 15-year-old Emperor Meiji, with Japan beginning its transformation from an isolationist feudal state into an industrialized world power.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Another famous incident was inspired more by greed than by anti-foreign sentiment or revenge. That was the murder on April 4, 1899, of Reverend Thomas Alfred Large, the 31-year old Canadian principal of the Toyo Eiwa school for girls in Azabu. Two men broke into his house at night, knocked his wife unconscious, and stabbed Lange with their swords. He fell to the floor gasping and died shortly thereafter.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>As recounted in Mark Schreiber\u2019s excellent book,\u00a0\u201cThe Dark Side: Infamous Japanese Crimes and Criminals\u201d\u00a0(Kodansha International, 2001, p.125-127). \u201cThe Japanese government\u2019s overriding concern were the\u00a0political implications, if any, over the slaying. If the assailants had acted out of anti-foreign, or anti Christian motives, some feared the Western\u00a0powers might reject Japan\u2019s ongoing efforts to renegotiate unequal treaties. A substantial reward was posted for information leading to the killers\u2019 apprehension &#8230; But the killers\u2019 motive was almost certainly apolitical. In those times, burglars had no apprehensions about robbing foreigners. The Japan Weekly Mail\u00a0of April 26 observed, \u2018Without some hypothesis, it appeared difficult to imagine that the onslaught &#8230; could have been incidental to a mere burglary. But several Japanese &#8230; say it is the habit of sword-carrying burglars in this country to &#8230; simply kill or maim the obstructionist, and then proceed with their thieving work \u2026\u2019 \u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cNewspaper reports of the crime itself were sensationalized and full of inaccuracies, but public opinion was uniformly sympathetic toward the Large family. The vernacular\u00a0Hochi Shimbun\u00a0editorialized, \u2018&#8230; the victim was a foreigner who had come here from a distant land, and was engaged in teaching Japanese students. There is something sad about the fate of a man who dies far away from the land of his birth \u2026 How much sadder is the lot of one who falls under the weapons of common burglars in a foreign country. Such a fate should move everyone to pity &#8230; We trust, however, that the foreign public will not judge Japan by this catastrophe \u2026\u2019 \u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>It wasn\u2019t until five years later that police caught the perpetrators, who turned out to be professional robbers, arresting them on other charges. Both had turned to robbery after running up heavy gambling debts. One of the men was sentenced to 14 years in prison where he died, in 1896. The other, sentenced to 13 years, but was released after serving nine years and nine months as part of an imperial amnesty to commemorate the death of the Empress Dowager in 1898. When the latter\u2019s involvement in the crime was revealed, the statute of limitations had expired one month earlier. When questioned, the man, of course blamed his confederate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>On the other side of the ledger, was American seaman Robert Miller, who was convicted of a triple murder in Yokohama in that same 1899, shortly after a new treaty was signed abolishing the principle of\u00a0extraterritoriality and giving a Japanese court the right to try foreigner. The crime took place at a saloon called \u201cThe Rising Sun\u201d in what is now Yokohama\u2019s Chinatown.\u00a0Miller, in a drunken, jealous rage over the affections of \u00a0the saloon\u2019s comely female proprietress named Suye Tonooka, used a straight razor and claw hammer to murder an American named W. Nelson Ward, who habitually occupied the establishment, and a teenage serving girl named Aki Suzuki who was sleeping with Ward \u2026 Police found Miller the next morning snoring away in a nearby bar.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>He became the first Westerner to be hanged by Japan, congenially smoking a cigar as he stood on the gallows. (Read all about it here in a detailed piece by Eric C. Han\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/24243133\" rel=\"\">https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/24243133<\/a>\u00a0as well as Mark Schreiber\u2019s account in\u00a0The Dark Side.\u00a0)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>Still another famous episode, this one well into the postwar period, when U.S.-Japan relations had become critical in the global fight against communism, was\u00a0the knife attack on then U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer by a Japanese youth in March 1964 outside the U.S. Embassy. Reischauer was stabbed in the thigh outside the Embassy in what was an apparent assassination attempt. The young man whose name was Shiotani Norikazu, reportedly had a history of mental illness and suffered from a disorder of the inner ear called Meniere\u2019s Disease.\u00a0He was said to be angry with the U.S. occupation of Japan but apparently did not belong to any political group. Reischauer was taken to the hospital where he received a blood transfusion and recovered.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Prime Minister\u00a0Hayato Ikeda was moved to apologize twice: Once to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and once to the American public via a live telecast relayed by a communications satellite.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Unfortunately, the blood Reischauer received was tainted with the hepatitis C virus which complicated his recovery and Japan\u2019s Minister of Public Safety was compelled to resign. Reischauer suffered various ailments over the years as a result of the tainted blood and it ultimately contributed to his death 26 years later.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><em>The most famous case of murder in recent years involving a Westerner and a Japanese citizen was that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=Lucie+Blackman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lucie Blackman<\/a> the former\u00a0British Airways flight attendant who worked as a hostess in a Tokyo night club and was killed by a wealthy patron.\u00a0 It gained international attention when Tony Blair brought it up to his Japanese counterpart on a visit to Tokyo and the case made the cover of TIME Asia. It was later memorialized in Richard Lloyd Parry\u2019s harrowing account\u00a0\u201cPeople Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman.\u201d*<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>It is a phenomenon that causes\u00a0many Japan observers to ask the question\u00a0why did it take the disappearance of a\u00a0white woman at the hands of the Japanese not only to make the cover of TIME, but to cause the authorities to move on behalf of an illegally working migrant. The answer seemed have more to do with economic clout than anything else.\u00a0Or was it racism?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Complaints by authorities from less-developed countries in Japan, it appeared, were just not\u00a0worthy of the same attention as those from more developed, Occidental\u00a0 nations.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Indeed, the March 2007 murder of U.K. English teacher [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?s=Hawker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lindsay Ann] Hawker<\/a> at the hands of a Japanese martial artist, who raped and strangled her to death, also received national attention. Her assailant was captured by police after two-and-a-half years on the run and sentenced to life in prison. However, another case involving the 2006 murder of a Japanese pimp by his Thai sex slave who had endured unspeakable abuse, did not. Like so many other cases involving non-western foreigners, in particular, zainichi\u00a0Koreans,\u00a0it slipped under the radar.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>More on this subject later.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>END<\/p>\n<p>======================<br \/>\n<em>Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org&#8217;s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13748\">More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whiting:  Tokyo was stunned in late December by the news of the brutal killing of longtime Japan resident William Bishop, a 69-year-old U.S. national, his 68-year-old wife Izumi Morita, and their daughter Sophianna Megumi Morita, 32. All three were found dead outside their residence in Hanno, Saitama, with multiple wounds early Christmas morning.<\/p>\n<p>Later that day, prefectural police arrested the Bishops\u2019 neighbor, a 40-year-old Japanese man named Jun Saito, at his residence around the corner believing he had bludgeoned the Bishop family to death with what was believed to be a hammer. Saito had barricaded himself in an upstairs room, and the police had to force their way in to apprehend him. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Although all the facts are not yet in, the suspect appears to be part of a troubled generation suffering from mental disorders, who dropped out of school and work in droves in the \u201980s and \u201990s, when Japan\u2019s economic bubble burst, Japanese firms retrenched and downsized, and jobs were not readily available. The Japanese government has identified over half a million of these, so-called\u00a0hikikomori,\u00a0social recluses,\u00a0who live at home, passing their time on the Internet \u2014 the rise of which has contributed to their continuing isolation, remaining economically dependent on their parents, who, in turn, do not know what they can do to help their offspring find their footing outside of the household and try to hide what they view as an embarrassing situation.\u00a0Hikikomori\u00a0have failed to develop necessary social skills and are unable to adjust in a society that is very structured and sensitive to social stigma, one which fails to provide for social resources and professional treatment for mental illness, primarily because parents are too ashamed to seek it for their offspring. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Murder is rare in Japan compared to other countries. Social civility and strict hierarchical codes of conduct are often cited as reasons for the low incidence of violent crimes in Japan. However, Japanese assaults on foreigners are not new in in the long history of Japan\u2019s relations with the West. [&#8230;] The most prominent such incident was the murder was of\u00a0British citizen Charles Lennox Richardson in 1862&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,50,20,37,26,10,14,56,60,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issue","category-gaiatsu","category-history","category-injustice","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics","category-nj-legacies","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17465"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17473,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465\/revisions\/17473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}