＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
In 1997, there was a juvenile crime committed by a 14-year-old junior high school student called the Kobe Serial Child Murder Case. The case is also known as the “Sakaki-Bara Case” or “Sakaki-Bara Seito Case.
In July 2001, the parents of this boy published a memoir titled “‘Boy A’ I am his parent”. I have not read it.
However, based on the readers’ impressions, it seems that the parents were also quite insane. It is said that they did not send the royalties from the memoir to the victims, but used all of it to build their house. (I don’t know if this is true or not, but…)
This alone is enough to upset the feelings of the victims’ families, and now the former perpetrator himself, then 32 years old, who was released from a juvenile reformatory in 2005, published a memoir about the incident, “Zekka,” in June 2015.
I was strongly impressed by the victim’s father’s statement that his son was killed twice by the killer. In response to the publication of the memoir, the victim’s family has demanded that the publication be stopped and that the book be recalled. However, that request has not been granted as of yet, and it appears that the book continues to be reprinted.
Some bookstores and libraries in the Kinki region have a policy of not carrying this book, and many libraries nationwide are holding off on purchasing it. However, the “Japan Library Association,” referring to its “Declaration on the Freedom of Libraries,” is calling on libraries nationwide to ensure that their decisions about purchases are not influenced by outside pressure.
The former juvenile who committed the crime once established a “homepage” for “Former Juvenile A,” but it is now closed. It seems that this “homepage” was also only a “place for self-expression,” and there was no apology to the victim’s family or any reflection on the incident. According to an expert’s analysis, “nothing had changed in his lack of discovery or compassion for others, his abnormality or danger.
Former Juvenile A also distributed a “paid e-mail newsletter,” which has now been frozen. According to the distributor, the reason for the freeze is that “there were violations of the terms of the agreement and behavior that inconvenienced many users.
Is it possible to establish a law regulating the publication of memoirs of such “heinous juvenile crimes” by the victims and their parents? While a uniform regulation may be difficult to implement due to the conflicts with “freedom of speech” and “freedom of expression,” I believe that “public welfare” and “public order and morals” must also be taken into consideration.
If there is a “request for an injunction against publication” from the victim’s family, I believe that the court should respond sincerely to the victim’s request, after carefully examining the contents of the book as well.
As a side note, the call by the “Japan Library Association” mentioned above (which not only condones such publication but also seems to criticize self-regulation of purchases) is hard to understand.