2009/07/06
Glimpses of Japan（外国人から見た日本）
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Glimpses of Japan (外国人から見た日本)
vol.246 Not So Sharp Law Misses the Point
2009.7.6
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First, since several people have surprised me by asking, I should mention that
the "Big Brother" in the title of last week's column comes from George Orwell's
book _1984_. If you haven't read the book, or at least seen the movie, I highly
recommend that you do so. It's not a cheerful book, but it's thought-provoking
and may well cause you to view surveillance cameras in a different light. It
may (it *will*, I hope) cause you to scrutinize the government and especially
the police very carefully, and to accept no new laws without seriously considering
the motivation of the authorities and the possible "side effects" of the laws.
Around this time last year, seven people were killed in Akihabara, in a highly
publicized case involving a man driving a rented truck into a crowd, killing three
people, and then fatally stabbing four other people. The government responded by
planning to "toughen" the laws controlling knives and swords and forearms. You
can read my thoughts on this in detail in Glimpses #194, written in June of last
year.
This time, I have come across a story that further shows what happens when laws
are made without carefully considering the effects they might have. The law
was revised, and there has been a moratorium which will end this coming Sunday.
Aimed at preventing the sale and possession of daggers and similar combat-oriented
knives, the revised law makes it illegal to own a double-edged knife with a 5.5
cm or longer blade and "a very sharply pointed tip." Penalties for violation are
imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to \500,000.
A couple of days ago, on Wednesday, the Hokkaido Prefectural Police announced
that certain types of oyster shucking knives-among the most popular types-- will
be among the knives banned, since they fit the definition.
This came as a great surprise to many people in eastern Hokkaido, which is one
of Japan's largest oyster production sites. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of perfectly
ordinary, law-abiding people are suddenly at risk of being imprisoned or heavily
fined for possessing the traditional tools of their trade.
How utterly stupid and pointless and wasteful.
Glimpses of Japan vol.246
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