Children are the mirrors of our society. They are the first ones to sense the hypocrisy of the adult world. But most of them do not have the proper means to make their voices heard or have themselves taken seriously. Not all of them are good at verbally articulating their feelings. And when their feelings of doubt, frustration and anger toward adults continue to be suppressed, some turn to violence.
Since a 17-year-old high-school student murdered his neighbor and another 17-year-old hijacked a bus, killing one passenger, the whole nation has been in a state of shock. Juvenile crime is now on a serious increase.
Today's teenagers are now viewed as potentially dangerous. When one of the boys arrested for murder reportedly said, "I wanted to have the experience of killing a human being," his words made many people view teenagers in general as incomprehensible aliens. But they are not creatures from other planets. They are the products of an environment that Japanese society has created over the last several decades. What we are witnessing today may be the desperate cries of children whose healthy development has been hampered by the society that adults have created.