Japan and gun violence

[DSEngere]

Hello folks. Long time listener, first time poster. I'm from Michigan in the US.

 

I am posting this to learn more about what seems to be the one and only soft spot in my anarchist philosophy, that being Japan's apparent success with gun control. For those who don't know, just look up the stats. The bottom line is that they have scores less gun murders. I thought there had to be a disclaimer, like massive amounts of rape or theft or something that guns deter, but I couldn't find anything.

 

Now, of course I realize that Japan has a completely different history than the USA, as well as a different cultural mentality. I know this plays an important role, but I have a hard time chalking up Japan's stats to just this.

 

Another point I realized is that having low gun crime is not at all worth the cost of enforcing gun law: a massive, all-powerful government who can rule and misrepresent you (think WW2) anytime. Yet still, I feel like I must be missing some important datapoint. It seems that Japan's gun control just works, which baffles me. Anywhere it's been tried here in America, it's been a complete failure- maybe because our country is so full of guns that criminals will always have a much easier time getting ahold of them? I don't know, and that's why I'm here to ask.

 

Thanks very much,

 

-Dan

[Panoptic]

I think you are misled about the relationship between objects called guns and crime rates. In the U.K., they have heavy gun control and very little murder rates, but their violent crime rates are 3 times higher than in the U.S. Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world (in huge contrast to all countries around it) and one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Japan has both high gun control and low crime rates. The relationship between guns and crime is very blurry. I think culture plays a larger role than you think. Of course, everybody on here agrees that culture is a terrible thing, but the Japanese people has a different sense of honor. They tend to blame their problems on themselves instead of others, but that's just their culture.

[MrCapitalism]

That is a good point, that their gun control is so complete that it is almost impossible for criminals to obtain guns.

 

In the USA, this is similar to our complete 'nuke' control, and complete 'heavy explosive/artillery' control. It's hard to make the argument that "when you ban nukes/tanks, only criminals will have nukes/tanks" (which is actually true, since the government owns nukes/tanks, and they're criminals)....

 

Maybe there's a turning point that needs to be reached, as in gun bans must be close to absolute before they start to become effective.

[Alan C.]

Looting was mostly absent in Japan after the 2011 tsunami.

[st434u]

Japan is much more homogeneous than the US, culturally as well as racially, and the average as well as the mean levels of wealth and standards of living are higher. IQs, both average and mean, are much higher than in the US.

 

They don't have the huge proportion of war veterans (especially young) that the US has, the welfare system is smaller, and they have less drug related problems, as less people use drugs (again because of all of the above).

[Josh F]

Who needs a gun when you can shoot a hadduken? 

 

Great topic though, so some of the reasons I think play a roll mentioned above include

 

Homogenous Culture

Shame Culture

Higher Incomes and Education

A history of Sword control before gun control

Less Drug crime

 

These things all lead to an increase in criminality, so....

 

Lets think of this whole thing from the opposite direction.  Why would Japanese people need guns?  What if violent crime causes the increase in gun ownership, not the other way around?  So if you live in a dangerous violent place, you're going to want a gun.  If you live in a safe place you don't need a gun.  How much demand for gun ownership exists in Japan?  Wouldn't low crime rates lead to less gun ownership in a free market?

[Honest]

Looting was mostly absent in Japan after the 2011 tsunami.

 

Not only did they not loot, but people made an effort to get back lost wallets to their owners. Also the elderly with low life expectancy volunteered to clean up the Fukushima mess.

 

I think what you are missing OP is innate differences between the Japanese and other populations. It has been well established that East Asians have higher IQs and IQ has a negative correlation with criminality.

 

Another thing is parenting style. While I do think IQ and genetics play a role in this, there also must have been an enormous shift in the child rearing mode of Japan since the generation that produced the Nanking Massacre. You can read about the child rearing practices of Japan during that time here, specifically chapters five and six.

[Phuein]

I can't say I know a lot about Japan, but I sure am surprised to see that no one has yet to mention the Japanese organized crime system - such as the Yakuza. This relates to all kinds of violence, and not just guns.

 

The Japanese Government and Social systems pretty much rely on the Mafia to handle all events that are considered an exception to the rule (pun intended.) I watched a very interesting documentary about them, which reveals the strong logic behind their structure (can't find video link for the specific film.) Naturally, how crime is organized depends on which culture hosts it, so the social honor that bounds officials in Japan, does not bound officials in other countries.

[MarkIX]

I have heard from various sources that the Japanese criminal court system has a higher conviction rate than Stalin's political courts did. Seems to suggest some pretty fundamental differences to other cultures.

[Phuein]

Mark, how about punishment scaling (appropriateness) and relative number of arrests (in comparison to other regimes)? Got any info there?

[masonman]

Walk down any street in Japan and you can see why they have such low crime. They just don't have a violent culture. They have suicide issues resulting from the ritualistic elements of their culture, but the closeness of families and very non-violent culture I think has made the country very low-crime relative to other countries.

[MarkIX]

Mark, how about punishment scaling (appropriateness) and relative number of arrests (in comparison to other regimes)? Got any info there?

Sorry haven't looked, This is something I haven't researched, just information I have heard from various sources over time. It may not be even true but the sources where unrelated so I thought it was worth introducing as an anecdote.

 

In China there is as historic context in the legal process that requires confession, from some TV shows I have seen of actual interviews it is still adhered to. I wouldn't be surprised if given the cross cultural exchanges that have occurred in the region if Japan shared similar traditions.