The myth of ’safe’ Japan
My first year here in Japan, I walked into a machine gun driveby in front of a pachinko parlor while walking home from my station in Toshima ward Tokyo. Then when I moved, several women got dumped in the park right next to my apartment in Yokohama as I reported here on the 3Yen in: Killer Japanese suitcases!. 
Now this chimpera (wannabe yakuza) with a blond gaijin girlfriend gets stabbed down the block from my condo. Yikes, these murders keep following me in “safe” Tokyo.
Man stabbed to death in posh part of Tokyo
Jan. 26, 2008 - Mainichi Daily News: A middle-aged man was fatally stabbed in an apartment building in an affluent part of Tokyo on Saturday, police said.
The man, who was stabbed in the back, is believed to have been a 53-year-old male resident of the apartment block in Ota-ku...more...
Damn, it’s bad enough that three different places I have lived at in Tokyo have been burglarized…Now, my neighbors keep get getting murdered. Sheesh.
UPDATE:
Here’s Japanese TBS News report giving the murdered guy’s name as Hideki Fujiie, “occupation unknown” which you can see in the video and written report.
Click to watch.
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January 27th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Holy cow, Taro - I was just about to send you email on that news story. I saw the photo and thought it looked just like the buildings on your street, and was wondering if the “posh neighborhood” was your neighborhood! Glad it wasn’t you.
January 27th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Yeah, I about died laughing to read that my light-industrial slum is “posh.”
January 27th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Hey Taro you got it wrong again. The news says the murder was about 300 meters west of your train station (not next to it as you are showing it).
January 28th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Maybe you are a magnet…
because for once… I think… aside from the insane truck drivers… The country is more or less awesomely safe…
Never locked my bicycle or car in 3 years… (even with a sticker “FREE CAR” and keys on the ignition she was still there…)
But it’s true that yesterday I saw an old Lady shouting at a policeman, seems she could not cross and he was not helping her or something. I’m still scared…
January 28th, 2008 at 2:08 am
wow… it’s interesting that the rest of the world still talks about Japan as a place where none of those things happen. drive by shooting? in Tokyo??
I wonder for how long will the myth of “the safest place on earth” live in the same sentence with “Japan”…
January 28th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Not safe?! you’re joking yeah?
In Japan this kind of stuff happens mostly to people that have some kind of relationship to organised crime; in the UK and US for example, this kind of stuff happens mostly to anyone happening to be there when it happens!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Used cars in Japan have zero value, but bicycles are always stolen at the station by drunks. Like all Japanese, I just expect to lose a bike every few years.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I walked out Komagome station of the Yamamote line, and manages to get into crossfire of rival gang spaying a new Pachiko Parlor (who obviously was owned be a rival gang or didn’t pay bribes/tribute). Nobody was hurt and many crimes here. the newspapers did not report it.
Likewise, one hour before “Final Realization,” I rode on the one of the trains that was hit during the Tokyo sarin poison gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo religious crazies.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:21 am
seems like you really are a magnet for trouble!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Ha, ha, you better stay away from me.
Gee, come to think of it I’ve watched three suicides in Japan too…one train jumper, one building splat, and one traditional river self-drowning.