The Japanese people are living under a great deal of stress. It will produce more cases like this. The school stabbings will fuel the debate over the legal handling of people judged mentally incompetent. But the mentally and psychologically ill are only one group among the many being offered as scapegoats for the inexorable rise in crime here. There's a huge amount of social stress and pressure.
Some people just explode.
Experts blame a complex mix of factors for the rising number of crimes. But the lion's share of the blame may lie with a breakdown of traditional values exacerbated by a decade of economic woes amid an increasingly fast-paced lifestyle. In addition, social mores that dictate suppressing the expression of negative emotions in order to maintain harmony leave many without a way of venting their feelings until it is far too late, sociologists say. Economy and crime Many countries have seen that when their economy suffers, crime often rises. Japan, too, may be seeing the criminal consequence of 10 years of economic stagnation.