Sunday, May 14, 2006

By MARK SCHREIBER

The word boso -- written with characters meaning "violent" and "run" -- can be rendered several ways in English: a stampede, to run out of control, to be reckless, or to go on a rampage.

It's telling that two magazines this past week used almost identical headlines containing this word, both pertaining to sex by rural teens, and how such activities culminated in the April 19 murder of Nao Shimizu, 13, in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture.

Police found Shimizu's bludgeoned and strangled body two days after her disappearance, in a vacant building that had formerly housed a pachinko parlor and wedding hall. Local teens had broken into the upper floor and had been using the room for their trysts.

The alleged perpetrator, age 15, appears to have been remarkably precocious for a boy in his first year of high school. According to Shukan Post (May 19), Youth "A" (his name, unlike the victim's, is not made public as he is still a minor) had originally moved to Nakatsugawa from the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa after his parents lost their restaurant business and fled to avoid debt collectors. He had allegedly fathered a child by a female classmate two years earlier.

What, Shukan Post wonders, were parents and teachers doing while all these things were happening, and why didn't anyone make efforts to halt them?

"We'd received reports from citizens that kids had broken into the vacant building, a former pachinko parlor, and were messing up the place," Fukuo Kashima, assistant chief of the Nakatsugawa police, tells Shukan Post. "From March of last year, we sent cars to patrol the area, but no minors had been charged."

Weekly Playboy (May 22) writes that while the murder may have been an aberration, the stampede of sexual promiscuity among youngsters in the provinces is by no means a rarity.

"Kids may be becoming sexually active earlier in rural areas than in the cities," observes Dr. Tsuneo Akaeda of the Roppongi Akasaka Clinic, who points out that Tokyo boasts the nation's sixth lowest rates among Japan's 47 prefectures in terms of teens who have sexually transmitted diseases or who have terminated pregnancies.

"Unlike urban areas, which have plenty of ways for kids to amuse themselves, young people in the countryside don't have much to keep them occupied. So they indulge in drinking and sex."

The student counselor at a middle school in an unnamed city in Tochigi Prefecture sighs to Weekly Playboy that he frequently observes students fondling one another during breaks between classes.

"Young people in rural areas may be too pure," says Akaeda. "They're astonishingly naive to the dangers of temptation. Stores there don't tempt them with fancy foreign brands, so it's not a case of greed, or of girls selling their bodies for money. But wild stories get circulated and they'll believe almost anything, no matter how outrageous. In the countryside, the mundane reality fails to stimulate. Adults can handle this, but the kids are taken in by such tales and run wild."

Perhaps this was why Youth A, a newcomer from the big city, was successful in flaunting his sexuality.

"He always had four or five girlfriends at the same time," the boy's classmate tells Shukan Jitsuwa (May 25). "He was going with seven that I knew about, including Nao. But he didn't really care about them -- he was just interested in the physical relationship."

A classmate describes Nao as having a reputation for being brassy, with pierced ears and a cigarette frequently dangling from her hand. She lived with her divorced mother and an older brother.

"A customer at her mother's snack bar, 10 years her junior, had moved in with them," a family acquaintance relates. "He and Nao didn't get along, so she stayed out a lot."

Aside from the accounts of "rampaging" teen sex is an even more disquieting rumor. Strewn amid the cigarette butts, beer cans and used condoms in the grimy room where Nao Shimizu's body was found were discarded hypodermic syringes. A police source tells Shukan Jitsuwa the investigation is proceeding with the hypothesis that drugs might have figured in her death.

Tokyo Confidential summarizes articles appearing in vernacular tabloids. The views expressed herein do not reflect those of The Japan Times, nor can we vouch for the veracity of the contents.

We welcome your opinions. Click to send a message to the editor.