Unemployment leads to a life of crime

I still don’t quite understand the Japanese media’s fixation on the employment status of accused criminals, but whatever the case it often results in some amusing headlines:

Jobless man arrested for strangling former girlfriend
from MSN-Mainichi Daily News

SENDAI — A 35-year-old unemployed man has been arrested for murdering his former girlfriend, police said.

25 thoughts on “Unemployment leads to a life of crime”

  1. I often wonder when I hear reports of criminals being “unemployed:” Does being a criminal for a living count as unemployment?

  2. It’s just a way of classifying what people do. The categories are very broad: 会社員、自営業、公務員、無職. So I suppose you could call a professional criminal 自営業, but plenty of people — including myself! — wouldn’t be very happy about it.

  3. I find it hilarious when a 95 year old is accused of a crime and described as “unemployed”…. In any case, this is just a form of classification that the Japanese press likes to use. It is not always useful (ie. for obviously retired people). Explicit discussion of connections between unemployment and crime are seldom touched upon.

  4. I imagine that it’s hard to write “hitman” on your tax return without being arrested. Unless you work at Hitman & Co. in Marunouchi, of course.

  5. I think 無職 has a different connotation than the English ‘unemployed’, which is more like 失業者 in that it carries the very strong implication of “should be employed”. Mushoku is simply ‘without job’, hence its application to geriatrics where we would say ‘retired’. Why the Japanese don’t use that I do not know. 容疑者は95歳のご隠居さんでございます。。。。?

  6. What aceface says is true. Still don’t think the classifications are all that good. I mean, the classification is just enough to be intrusive to the subject, and just enough to be uninformative to the audience (see my second comment).

    ADAMU: I await your response to my original question!!

  7. It was amusing to see it yet again — it was one of those surprising yet familiar “oh, there it is again” moments, perhaps almost not worth sharing with the blog. But that’s life. Also, your last comment sums it up nicely – what exactly do we learn by knowing that the man was unemployed? It’s that kind of executive summary reporting that leaves out so many details and bugs me to no end.

  8. Now ,at first I thought this post was just another Adamu’s “Why is Japan right handled instead of left like rest of us?Weird.”genre.But I thought again.

    Any of you are familiar with the great Japanese criminal journalism debate,Whether we should or should not publish the name of the suspects before they get guilty in court?While the popular will want the name puplished,think this is the news that fits to print.Asada Kenichi,ex-Kyodo reporter and now Doushinsya Univ. professor on journalism and media literacy(I hate him) is the most vocal proponent among the naysayers.
    I was a bit sceptic about this,but considering the notoriety of Japanese criminal courts;99.9 % get guilty,Now I’m changing the camp.I mean ,Do media has to play the role of hammering the last nail in the coffin for suspects? They could have been innocent! And considering the current trend of the lawsuits against media for damaging the individual’s honor.I think it can be justified as self protection measure.
    This job classification is nothing more than media simply copying down the press release from police kisya clubs.And behind this,there is an idea that individual is tied down to his or her social position and the surroundings have responsibility to correct the misbehavior of colleagues and employees.On the other hand,individuals can not depend on the court to protect themselves from hostile surroundings, because a)it takes money b)it takes time c) it takes away the social reputation from individual as a trusted member of the society,that will put you in the position of being defacto ostracized.And with the media following the law enforcement blindly,individuals can’t count on media either.
    But if we stop publishing the job classification of the suspect along with their name, that means there isn’t much information left for news to cover the crime case.
    So that is our dilemma.
    I think the radical change in the judical system is needed here,and media should not press the name before the court decision.But I think this would not happen in the near future.

  9. Why do news stories in English generally have one sentence per paragraph? Why include the who-what-when-where-why-how in the lead para? It’s just journalistic style. In the Japanese style of news-writing, you mention a person, you give the person’s age and job (or lack of such).

    When I teach J-E translation I tell my students that this information is often useless and distracting, and that they can leave it out when it isn’t called for in the target document. The translators working for the Japanese papers haven’t had the benefit of my teaching, obviously. 😉

  10. Above post,I deleted the following
    ‘ Asada claims”because of the danger of abusing the human right of the suspects, Kisya clubs must be dismantled”‘

  11. I think more human rights abuse goes on inside police interrogation rooms than inside kisha clubs. If you want to fix the conviction rate, give police less time to coerce a confession out of the suspect. 23 days is far too long: most people end up confessing to lesser charges just so they can go home.

  12. There is a movie coming to the multiplex near you from the director of “Shall We Dance” ,Subou Masayuki called それでもボクはやっていない,About the suspect who got busted mistakenly as a molester in the train and refuse to give in to the police.
    Put himself in the kafkaesque world of Japanese judical system.
    Could be interesting.

  13. Ace: As much as your instincts might lead you to believe that I think Japan is some kind of laughing stock, I hope you can continue to reconsider. And in answer to your question as to whether I’m aware of where the headlines actually come from, yes I am and that’s part of what makes headlines like this interesting.

  14. If you want to fix the conviction rate, give police less time to coerce a confession out of the suspect.

    Interesting discussion, although I think Japan’s lack of a well-paid, hotshot defense lawyer cadre is equally responsible than the police interrogations (which are by-and-large a good thing, I think).

  15. Adamu:
    “And in answer to your question as to whether I’m aware of where the headlines actually come from, yes I am and that’s part of what makes headlines like this interesting.”

    I KNOW THAT! I’m just joking!!
    Look,I would always be on your side if you ever mess around with some F××ked up Gaijins again,some bigots in 2ch even.Promise.

  16. “Look,I would always be on your side if you ever mess around with some F××ked up Gaijins again,some bigots in 2ch even. Promise.”

    If any of you guys want to organize some kinda gang fight with Mutantfrog haters on 2ch, I’m there.

  17. Thanks Joe for a wonderful quote.Especially just in time I posted.it made my previous post looks ridiculous!
    Now I’ll get back to work…..

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