2003年05月11日 日曜日
Japan's Drunken Excuse as Example
by Justin Hall
Politics
An opinion piece in the New York Times offers Japanese public drunkenness as a model to consider for the defense in a New York case involving the racially-motivated stabbing of a Jewish man by a young black man.
In "A Way to Say, 'Sayonara, Mr. Nelson'," Clyde Haberman points out that Japan has excessive drinking as a ready excuse for bad behavior, and the defendant in this case might be better off in those circumstances. It's a bit sad to see Japan described this way abroad, hinting at the familiar archetype of the staggering drunk businessman. There is something important in the idea that people can excuse momentary flashes of anger; I just wish people could excuse them without having to depend on alcohol! At least this author seems to have actually spent time in Japan, as his example is rather intimate and seems to hint at some command of the language or culture.
Posted by Justin Hall at 2003年05月11日 02:59
Comments
Justin, I have no idea of your age, but when I first came to Japan as a businessman, even accidents caused by drunken drivers (especially pros, like truck drivers) were excused or given lighter treatment because the perp was drunk. There were no DIU laws (ca. 1968-69) and many excesses, beatings, (and if my memory serves me correctly) and killings were excused because of the perpetrator's drunkenness. Now, thank goodness, that is no longer the case.
charlie
Justin, I have no idea of your age, but when I first came to Japan as a businessman, even accidents caused by drunken drivers (especially pros, like truck drivers) were excused or given lighter treatment because the perp was drunk. There were no DIU laws (ca. 1968-69) and many excesses, beatings, (and if my memory serves me correctly) and killings were excused because of the perpetrator's drunkenness. Now, thank goodness, that is no longer the case.
charlie
Is it just me who finds the NYT coverage of and reference to Japan so maddening? You'd think they could afford good reporters who can make intelligent commentary without reducing Japan to some kind of exotic & weird culture. When the NYT has an article on Japan, 9 times out of 10 I roll my eyes in dispair...
Is it just me who finds the NYT coverage of and reference to Japan so maddening? You'd think they could afford good reporters who can make intelligent commentary without reducing Japan to some kind of exotic & weird culture. When the NYT has an article on Japan, 9 times out of 10 I roll my eyes in dispair...
I guess an opinion piece makes it okay that it's just an "opinion." Everyone is free to have their own thoughts.
I don't know that we are not lenient on drunks.
I don't actually deny that there's alot of drinking involved in Japan. It's readily available in train stations, convinience stores, places where I personally don't find a dire need for them. And though the penalty for hurting another in the case of drunk driving now exists, often the penalty does not seem very long to me.
Japanese 12 steppers....not a large population.
Maybe the writer actually had an interesting thought.
But what is the article about? The Lemrick Nelson Jr. in the Crown Heights case? About trying to use alcohol as defense for a racial crime? or about Drunks in Japan and how we excuse them?
It seems that the writer is attempting to be interesting and clever, but I don't get it.
I think it would have been more interesting to develop his opinion about the defendant than wasting so much column space on an incident he had in Japan. Or if what he really wanted to write was about drunks in Japan, then go at it but write about a better opinion than some lame defense argument should leave the U.S. for Japan....don't try to entice the local NYers by starting the piece with some local news, peppering it with his experience which is not so interesting....tsumaranai...
But then again, the NYT has recently had its own scandals with reporters...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html
So maybe Clyde Haberman is yet a "good writer" compared to Jayson Blair
Igbo keep offf