＜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
On April 19, 2019, a tragic accident occurred in Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, when a passenger car Prius driven by an elderly driver went out of control, killing a mother and her child who were cycling and injuring eight others.
We cannot help but wonder why the driver of this passenger car, 87-year-old Kozo Iizuka, was not arrested and was not reported as a “suspect” (the media, which gave his real name, used “san” in reporting his title, such as “former director”).
It would be a different story if there were a uniform rule that not only Mr. Iizuka, but other elderly drivers as well, would not be arrested or reported as suspects.
However, in the April 20 accident in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, in which a 64-year-old driver of a city bus hit pedestrians in a crosswalk, killing two men and a woman in their 20s and seriously injuring six others in their 20s to 50s, the driver was caught red-handed and was reported as a suspect.
１．The Mystery of Only Former High-ranking Officials Not Being “Arrested”
Bus drivers and regular elderly drivers would normally be arrested, but why is he the only one not arrested?
The police apparently commented that he was “injured” and that there was “no fear of him escaping,” but I highly doubt why only a former high-ranking bureaucrat could assert that there was “no fear of him escaping.
Is there some kind of “discovery” at work, like the “privilege of non-arrest” during a Diet member’s session?
２．The Mystery of Former High-ranking Officials Not Being “Reported” as Suspects
The reason why the police have not arrested the former high-ranking bureaucrats is not clear, but it is also hard to understand why the mass media has been calling them “san” instead of treating them as “suspects”.
I don’t know because I have not researched all the crime stories of former high-ranking bureaucrats and politicians from previous years, but I highly question the manner in which this story was reported.
３．Question why the media, which harshly denounces discrimination, gives them special treatment
It is highly questionable why the media, which has always taken a hard look at discrimination, including “racism,” and emphasized its “stand with the weak,” would give special treatment to a former high-ranking bureaucrat as if he were a “senior citizen” with “privilege of arrest.
The media companies often criticize the government and bureaucrats harshly, but are they “disciplined” somewhere this time?
I believe that the media companies have a responsibility to “carefully explain and convince” the public on this point.
The media seems to have a rule that you don’t call someone a suspect unless they are arrested or wanted. If the situation is such that it is not clear whether the person is a criminal or not, I think it is fine to use the “presumption of innocence” and call the person “san”.
However, in a case like this where it is clear that an accident has occurred, I still think it is strange to refer to the person as “san” just because “he/she is also injured and hospitalized and has not been arrested.
I think it is necessary to consider changing the existing rule in order to prevent the general public from misunderstanding or getting the wrong idea.