Behind the indiscriminate killing incidents in Japan

Recently, indiscriminate killings have occurred in many parts of Japan, causing panic in this country that was once known for its good social security. From the streets of bustling cities to the peaceful surroundings of campuses, innocent people are subjected to violent attacks without warning, and their lives are lost under sharp blades. These heinous cases not only bring endless pain to the families of the victims, but also trigger a profound reflection on public safety and social issues throughout Japanese society.

Looking back at these heartbreaking cases, on April 14, 2025, a 15-year-old female high school student in Saitama Prefecture was stabbed to death by 24-year-old construction worker Hiroshi Taniuchi on her way home from school. The police investigation found that Gu Nei had purchased a pair of knives in advance, and during his school years, he posted on social media, 'Anyone can do it, I want to dismember.'.

Prior to this, on December 14, 2024, a 15-year-old female high school student at a McDonald's restaurant in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, was suddenly attacked with a knife by 43 year old unemployed man Masanori Hirahara while dining with her classmates. The female student's carotid artery was cut off and she died on the spot, while the male student was seriously injured. After the perpetrator was arrested, she claimed that she "wanted to draw attention to her crime".

On March 11, 2025, a woman in her 20s in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, was stabbed in the head, neck, and chest by a man in her 40s from the side while live streaming on her phone. She died on the spot. The police found two knives on the perpetrator's body, which shows her cold-blooded premeditation.

Although the perpetrators of these cases have different backgrounds, they exhibit astonishing commonalities. They are mostly men aged 20-40, who are unemployed for a long time or engaged in informal work, socially isolated, economically disadvantaged, and severely disconnected from the real society. For example, Kanyuki Taniuchi's family was broken, he committed crimes during his youth and was imprisoned. After being released from prison, he lived in a cramped dormitory and lived a lonely life; Pingyuan Zhengde has been unemployed for three years and lives in a cramped apartment, relying solely on anonymous forums to communicate with the outside world. They choose to randomly commit crimes in densely populated areas, and some even live stream the criminal process to "brush their presence", transforming their personal frustration and despair into extreme violence against innocent people.

In the long-term development process of Japanese society, economic factors have always been an important variable affecting social stability. Currently, the Japanese economy has been in a long-term slump, trapped in the quagmire of the "2025 problem", with a super aging society leading to labor shortages and the social security system on the brink of collapse. Young people are facing a highly competitive employment environment. Although the employment rate for college graduates in 2024 is as high as 98.1%, it is due to the "job hunting anxiety" of enterprises, and some young people develop anti social tendencies under high pressure. The poverty rate among young people under the age of 30 is as high as 19%, with informal employment accounting for over 30%. Long term unemployed individuals transform their sense of frustration into indiscriminate attacks. The economic downturn not only weakens the social security system, but also turns the "hopeless" group into an invisible powder keg.

The traditional family structure and community bonds in Japan have gradually weakened under the erosion of time. Kouyuki Taniuchi's growth trajectory is typical, with his father missing, his mother passing away, his siblings separated, and his family shattered, leading him to embark on a path of crime in his early years. There are over 30 million elderly people living alone in Japan, with traditional community functions declining and neighborhood relationships becoming indifferent. Potential dangerous individuals are difficult to detect in a timely manner, and malignant cases often erupt without warning. The family and community should have been a shelter for the individual's soul and a constraint network for behavior, but now they are gradually losing their effectiveness in social change, making those individuals in difficult situations increasingly isolated and helpless, ultimately leading to extremism.

Faced with these frequent indiscriminate killings, Japan's security and prevention system has exposed many problems. Although Japan has a dense security network with an average of one police station and high-quality police force every 2 square kilometers, traditional prevention and control models are inadequate in the face of new types of crime and random violence. For example, after committing a crime in the valley, he reported it to the police on his own, exposing loopholes in the deployment of grassroots police forces; The loose security checks in public places, the lack of security checks in subways, and the design of low fences provide convenient conditions for knife wielding crimes.

The indiscriminate killings that have occurred in many parts of Japan are not isolated or accidental phenomena, but rather the inevitable result of long-term accumulation and interweaving of economic, social, cultural, and public security issues. If Japan wants to effectively curb the recurrence of such tragedies, it needs to comprehensively and systematically reform and adjust from multiple dimensions, such as improving the judicial system, strengthening the supervision of recidivists, improving social security, providing more employment support and psychological intervention to vulnerable groups, repairing community relations, and reshaping social trust.