A tragic murder that shouldn't happen

A young British woman was murdered in Japan. Her name is Lindsay Ann Hawker. She was a 22-year old English teacher. She came to Japan with high hopes for a new life in a far-away country and passion for teaching English to non-English-speaking people. As her father told in a very emotional news conference today, she decided to come to Japan after she and her family had agreed that Japan was a safe and good society. But our society failed to provide security and protection to such a wonderful visitor who placed her trust in the Japanese society. I feel extremely sad. My heart goes out to Lindsay's family.

This was a gruesome crime and the 28-year-old creepy-looking suspect is still at large. This man must be caught and punished. Miss Hawker's was not the first murder case involving a young British woman. Seven years ago another young British woman Lucy Blackman was murdered in a similarly gruesome case near Tokyo.

Not long ago Japan was widely believed to be the safest society in the world, allowing people to walk home at a late hour on a dimly-lit street from a bus stop or a train station. Japan used to boast crime rates a couple orders of magnitude lower than those in the United States. Not any more. With the loosening of society's moral code and an increasing influx of foreign-born criminals, heinous crimes seem to be on the rise. The Japanese society is not a safe society the way it used be. Any foreign visitor considering Japan as their destination should bear in mind that they have to take the same precautionary and protective measures against crimes as they would when visiting any other Asian country or a country in the Americas.