Wherever I go in Japan I always see somethingabout kidnapping or chikans. Around my neighborhood I always see little yellow flags with a scared big headed kid on it. The meaning of the flag is the owner of that house is willing to help people in need. The reason I chose this is because of the police involvement with this situation. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080424p2a00m0na024000c.html This is a link to a site showing how recently in Tokyo two men were arrested for kidnapping and they were caught and are now going to be serving life sentences. Another case in Nagoya http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080503p2a00m0na006000c.html is a little strange to me. I can't believe this still happens. But a woman was trying to help someone and he tried to kidnap her at knife point. I am not sure how people can do that in day time but I think there needs to be more people willing to help. Even though the posts are up saying people will help I still haven't heard about how someone actually stopped people from getting hurt or anything.
This picture was taken in a train station in Kyoto. I think it is crazy to see that they are cartoon drawings of such a serious problem. The only reason I noticed it was because my friend and I happen to stop right by it and I have a little attention span so I was looking at everything I could on my break from walking. If I hadn't stopeed though I would never have paid attention to a cartoon and consider it to be some important message. I am really curious of how many people pay attention to these warnings because of how they are displayed. This site(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6DE1139F933A1575AC0A961948260) says that 95 % of kidnappers are caught. But I didn't see how many kidnappings actually occur. There are not many for ransom though.
1 comment:
With the popularity of manga (and visual anthropology), perhaps such visual signs get more notice than a text only sign.
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