Dead body ignored by Osaka crowds

[saigon68]

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Posted: 11:17 PM EST (0417 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/12/17/offbeat.japan.ignored.ap/index.html

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Police in western Japan say a man's dead body was ignored by crowds on a busy downtown street corner for two months before a taxi driver finally alerted authorities.

The body, believed to be that of a homeless man in his late 60s or early 70s, was found in front of a popular department store in the crowded downtown area of Osaka, Japan's second-largest city.

A police official said it was partially decomposed by the time authorities collected it earlier this month.


According to the official, the deputy chief of the local police precinct, the corner is among the busiest in the city, with about a million people passing through the area each day.

(My take) we are so busy Christmas shopping we fail to look out for our fellow human beings.

[leftchick]

1. this is very disturbing......

how utterly sad.... :cry:

[Devils Advocate NZ]

2. You know, the Osaka police shouldn't be pointing any fingers...

I mean, are they saying they haven't patrolled down that street in two months? Or are they saying that their police officers failed to notice the body as well? Either way, it doesn't look to good for the cops either...

[RebelOne]

3. Geez, wouldn't they have noticed the smell as they passed by?

I smelled a decomposed body as it's something I'll never forget.

[BiggJawn]

4. What about the fabled Japanese fastidiousness?

I can't imagine nobody noticed the smell or the flies after a while.

[spinbaby]

5. That only seems to apply at home

At home, the Japanese are fanatically clean, but somehow that cleanliness doesn't always apply to public places, some of which are incredibly grubby.

[DoNotRefill]

6. Do the Japanese celebrate christmas?

I thought most Japanese were Shinto....

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Many are Christian

The missionaries were out in force after WWII.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Only 1% are Christian,

a percentage that has held steady since about 1870.

Christmas in Japan is bizarre. The department stores have taken the commercial aspects of it on whole-heartedly, since it coincides with the traditional season of giving year-end gifts to people to whom you have some kind of obligation. (o-seibo).

There's at least one part of Tokyo where the street trees are lit up for the season.

Somehow, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve got turned around, since New Year's Eve is the holiday that everyone goes home for, and Christmas Eve is the biggest night of the year to go out drinking and clubbing. However, the whole month of December is the season for bounenkai, "forget-the-year" parties, held by businesses and organizations.

If you're not going out drinking, you order a Christmas cake, pick it up on Christmas Eve day, and eat it at home.

TV variety shows feature Christmas carols, most of which were translated into classical Japanese by nineteenth century missionaries, with obvious exceptions like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." ("Makka na o-hana no, tonakai-sa-n-wa, itsumo mi-n-na no, waraimono...)"

New Year's is the big family holiday, and the country pretty much shuts down for at least three days, except for vital services and convenience stores. (All my translation clients will be away for between three and seven days.) There are certain foods that you eat, such as a soup called "o-zouni," and grilled rice cakes called "mochi," as well as "longevity noodles" on New Year's Eve.

At midnight on New Year's Eve, you go to a Shinto shrine to pray for good luck in the coming year. There are shrines all over the place, so most people are within walking distance of one, but certain ones are trendier than others and get absolutely mobbed.

There are also traditions for New Year's Day. Children receive "o-toshidama," a gift of money, and anyone who visits a house with children had better bring some "o-toshidama." No housework may be done, because every household receives a new supply of good luck each year, and one doesn't want to accidentally throw it out.

New Year's cards are a big tradition, and each year, the Japanese postal system pulls off a huge feat. All New Year's cards sent before a certain date are bundled by recipient and delivered en masse on New Year's Day. I had noticed the signs in the post office saying "Mail your New Year's cards by December 17," but I didn't think much of it until I looked in my mailbox on January 2 (not having expected any mail on January 1) and found a pile of New Year's cards neatly bundled with a rubber band. That's when my landlady told me that they had actually been delievered on the 1st.

The Christian minority celebrates the religious aspects of Christmas, but Christmas is not a legal holiday, so it's a regular workday if it doesn't fall on a weekend.

[Guaranteed]

9. I seem to remember them celebrating it, but their

Santa comes in a different way. Like he flies in a rocket ship, or something.

[soothsayer]

12. they LOVE christmas, but they get it incredibly wrong (maybe)

on edit: or so the urban legends go---jesus in a santa hat, or santa on a crucifix

not sure if it's true, but i love the stories anyway

[Raster]

13. Santa on a crucifix???? With a VISA receipt nailed above his head...

[DoNotRefill]

15. We do it wrong too....

Here's some wrapping paper being sold at tshirthell.com....

[OneBlueSky]

8. two months????? . . . and in Tokyo??? . . .

geez, I could see it happening for a day or two, and even that would be unfortunate . . . but two months? . . . sometimes ya just gotta scratch you head and go "huh???" . . .

[demnan]

10. And I thought we were the worse

for ignoring homeless people. The Japanese took the cake on this one.

[happyslug]

11. Not usual

Studies have long shown that when Strangers meet in CROWED Public Places, they generally ignore each other. We view each other much like the trees in the woods, seen but soon forgotten. This is reenforced by relying on Government Agencies (i.e. the Police) to take care of "problems" i.e. the dead homeless man.

On the other hand, in areas where strangers are rare, than people will notice each other AND if someone is in trouble call the Police. In those situations people can not rationalize that someone would help the person, so they help. In crowded situations people tend to rationalize that the Police or someone else will help the person and than get on with their lives.

In a study of people on Vacation at Vacations sites, if a person is found on the street, the tourists almost always ignore him (No matter the nationality of the tourist or sick person) but the locals (i.e. people living in the area) do notice the sick person and offer to help (Again no matter the nationality of the local or the sick person).

Thus not only do you have rationalization going on, but some basic instinct kicking in also (“He is NOT from my tribe”. Remember until the last 200 years, the vast majority of people lived in small rural settings. In many ways these groups were “tribal” in outlook if not in formation, thus people have a very large instinct for tribal thinking).

Given this is a shopping district, there may not be any “local” citizens, everyone is coming from someplace else (Including the Police). Thus unless there exist a clear mandate do check everything and pick up anyone from the area, everyone would believe it is someone’s else’s duty to report and/or take care of the body of this homeless man.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. My take on the situation

Face-to-face, Japanese are the politest and kindest people on earth, but if you're in a crowd, such as the crowds that throng the shopping areas at busy times, you're not a person, you're just an obstacle. People run into you without apologizing and concentrate relentlessly on moving forward to where they want to go.

In the U.S., we have polite people and rude people. In Japan, the same person can be tremendously polite or rude, depending on the situation.

Osaka has a gigantic and conspicuous homeless population (more so than Tokyo, I think), due to Japan's following the U.S. lead in shipping jobs overseas. The sight of a homeless person lying in front of a department store would not be unusual.

It is unusual that even the store employees didn't notice that the same guy was lying in the same position for two months, but if he wasn't actually leaning against the store, they may have decided that the police would get around to picking him up eventually.

This is a cold, dry season in Japan, so there may not have been much of a smell or a lot of flies.

[molok555]

17. Somehow, not surprising

Many Japanese, especially in crowded places, are what they call 'frogs in wells', i.e. they have a highly developed tunnel vision. I remember NUMEROUS times where I would see/hear something I thought unavoidable only to have my Japanese friends be utterly clueless about it. Case in point: the big nationalistic sound trucks with stadium-type speakers would cruise by my office, literally shaking my desk. I wwould ask my (Japanese)co-worker what that was and she would look at me and ask "What what was?". She hadn't heard it. At all. My own theory is that this tunnel vision is a result of living in VERY crowded places where overt concern for your surroundings would simply be overwhelming. Think about the corner they describe: A MILLION PEOPLE PASS BY DAILY! Places like this are common in large Japanese cities. Think Shinjuku Station with its 1-1.5 million passengers each day. I still marvel at the 'scramble' crosswalk near the Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station-imagine the exits after an NFL game, the crush of humanity, the sea of bodies. This 'scramble' crosswalk sees that every 5-7 minutes or so. All day.

[tlcandie]

18. No street sweeper, cleaner up people there? No employees

who look outside or go outside to clean windows and doors from fingerprints etc to see this before stores open?

No police officers who drive by or walk by? No other homeless people who might say something?

No children asking Mommy/Daddy what is that? No tourists asking what is that?

Noone? Nothing? If this is the state of our world maybe it is better if this regime ends it all for us now... :cry:

[slackmaster]

19. Kitty Genovese phenomenon on steroids

The Japanese have a well-developed skill in diffusing responsibility.

Maybe it works for them but I hope that kind of life is not in MY future.

[saigon68]

20. Kitty Genovese 1964

To be beaten and STOMPED to death in front of 38 witnesses, none of whom called the cops

<>

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/


During the 1960s, when there was no shortage of drama in the nation’s courtrooms, one murder case stood alone in its ability to shock the country. The crime was not as gruesome as some others, since many more were just as violent, and still more that easily surpassed it. The victim was an ordinary working girl, not at all wealthy and not a member of any elite class. Her name was Catherine Genovese, the 28-year-old daughter of Italian-American parents. But to millions of people who read her story when it first appeared in New York City’s press, she would forever be remembered as “Kitty” Genovese. What happened to her, what happened to all of society on that dreadful night in the spring of 1964, would reverberate across the country and generate a national soul-searching that is reserved for only the most catastrophic of events. And nearly 40 years later, her name has become synonymous with a dark side of an urban character that, for many people, represents a harsh and disturbing reality of big city life.

[ochazuke]

22. This case not comparable

I think the Kitty Genovese story was one in which the victem cried out like "help me" and "he's killing me". Here, I assume the deceased gave no outward sign of physical distress. He probably appeared to be sleeping to the passers-by, who respected his privacy.

[ochazuke]

21. In Defense of the Japanese

I lived in Japan a long time and saw homeless people sleeping in public places quite often, sometimes very close to massive throngs of pedestrians. This illustrates the Japanese sense of public space and their respect for private space.

If the body was located somewhere where the passers-by are not neighbors, it's possible that almost everyone had seen him just once and thought he was sleeping.

Now to the police: they have been found wanting in a number of cases in Japan in recent years. I think that the officer walking that beat should have noticed the body. After all, the police in Japan are often called "omawari-san" (literally: Mr. Walks-about).