Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary general suggested a three-month tour in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah might be the solution to Japan’s rising violent crime right and school deliquency problem:
Commenting on the increase in vicious crimes in Japanese society and delinquency at schools, LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe said, “I do not think the situation will get better even if we revise the Constitution and the Basic Education Law.”
“It may be a wild view, but people’s characters will change for the better in three months if they join the SDF and go to Samawah” for reconstruction work, Takebe said.
Those Japanese rightists do say the damnest things…
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Shades of Battle Royale. One wonders if Takeshi Kitano will organize the training of the SDF juvenile delinquent squads.
He didn’t say they were lazy. He was talking about young people who commit violent crimes and who are guilty of delinquency.
He is not the first man–in any one of several countries–who thought the basic discipline provided by military life (getting up and going to bed at certain times, responsibility for tasks, physical training) would be a good idea for wayward youth. In fact, it works in many cases.
Then, there is the fact that the Japanese in Iraq are not engaging in combat. They also are engaging in “service” by helping another people.
The man’s comment in not PC, and certainly old-fashioned, but he does have his points, “rightist” or not. Watch out for those knees jerking.
Also, the idea that the modern SDF are anything similar to the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII is rather insulting, not to mention ill-informed.