TOKYO: Since the arrest earlier this year of a student for the gruesome beheading of an 11-year-old boy (the 15-year-old murderer is now in a mental institution), Japan has been in the grip of paranoia about a rise in juvenile crime.
In Tokyo, the latest fad of oyaji-gari (literally 'hunting down middle-aged men') among teenagers is threatening to ruin the city's reputation as the world's safest capital. Office-weary or drunken workers make easy prey for packs of bored kids, who follow their victims off trains and rob them of their wallets or briefcases. Other teenage gangs indulge in more specialised theft, 'Air Max-gari' groups target only wearers of Nike shoes, while 'Tamagotchi-gari' gangs seek out owners of beeping digital pets. Police say most gang members are from wealthy families but their parents don't like to interfere. When two boys were caught setting fire to rubbish bins recently, their unrepentant mother reportedly said, 'I've got nothing to do with it. The kids did it, not me.'
