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Posted on 03/20/2004 6:53:29 AM PST by sushiman

Youth A severed the head off 11-year-old Jun Hase and placed it on the front gate of an elementary school.

Slowly does it when you're lining up to buy your next Big Mac ... that young guy in front of you could well be one of Japan's most vicious, brutal and shocking killers, according to Weekly Playboy (3/30).

His real name can't be released, because when the now 21-year-old who referred to himself as Seito Sakakibara went on his bloodthirsty rampage, he was only a 14-year-old schoolboy.

Instead of being locked away behind bars for the rest of his life, though, the young man referred to only as Youth A is now back on the streets, free to do as he likes.

Not even the wrath of a large chunk of the population could prevent the brutal murderer from being freed.

Indeed, had the Kobe killer been just 13 months older when he committed his offenses, he may have conceivably been given the death penalty.

Caution is vital, even if many accuse the Justice Ministry of failing to show it by allowing the Kobe killer back onto the streets.

He has supposedly recovered from the sexual sadism that drove him to attack and wound at least five people with a hammer, two of them mortally.

In fact, he later severed the head off Jun Hase, an 11-year-old boy he had killed, filled the mouth with a threatening letter and placed the head on the front gate of an elementary school like some sort of warped trophy. His killings so shocked Japan, the normally tight-lipped Justice Ministry took the unprecedented step of publicly announcing his release from the reformatory where he has spent the past seven years apparently atoning for his sins to the extent bureaucrats deemed he could be released.

Robbers of trifling sums serve longer sentences.

Only his release was announced, however, not his identity.

And his address remains a secret, so he could be anywhere in Japan.

Zen originated in this country, so perhaps a little more meditation could have gone into the decision regarding Youth A's release, particularly as his two victims, had he allowed them to live, would even now still be at school and not given the freedom he has achieved despite taking their lives.

Until March 10, the day of his release, Youth A was closely supervised, but since then he has been unwatched and unguarded.

"Most of the time, juvenile criminals are let back into society a few months before their actual term is completed," Tetsufumi Tano, a writer specializing in youth crimes, tells Weekly Playboy.

"At nearly all reformatories, those due to be released are forced to write a pledge promising not to stray from the straight and narrow.

"Kids in the reformatories are gathered around to listen to the released inmate read out the pledge aloud.

"If they're in front of other kids promising to be good, the pledge is supposed to be less likely to be broken.

"Lots of times, you'll see other inmates bawling their eyes out when they hear the speeches.

"Less often, the parolee is sent away to a rousing round of applause from the other kids still stuck inside.

"Exceptional circumstances can change the practice, though. That's what looks like happened with Youth A, who was sort of sneaked out the back door on the morning of his release."

Reprehensible though it may be, Youth A is now responsible for reporting only to his probation officer.

"Often, kids on probation only need to visit their probation officer once every two weeks to report on their daily lives. They get what's called a probation card, which the officer stamps to show that the offender has been attending as they're supposed to," Tano says. "Youth A won't be able to return to his home (because it is too close to the scene of his crimes and his identity is too well-known), so he'll probably go to a halfway house. There are 10 or 15 halfway houses in Tokyo, so he'll get a room in one of them and head off to work from there."

Freedom will taste greater for Youth A because he walked out of reformatory straight into a job at a time when Japan's youth unemployment is at an unprecedented high, courtesy of the welding qualifications he earned while on an occupational training course on the inside.

"Kobe's killer could even be freer than he ever imagined. It all depends on his probation officer," Tano tells Weekly Playboy. "Some officers won't do anything if the offender fails to turn up for scheduled meetings. And if they marry on probation, they're generally regarded as having become a genuine member of society, so even the strictest probation officers turn a blind eye if they don't show up."

Inmates released from reformatories normally know what they want as soon as they're let out.

"Digging into some burgers ... Inside, about the only things you can't get are fast food and pets, so, as soon as you get out, you start thinking about things like McDonald's and sushi," a former juvenile offender tells Weekly Playboy. "As soon as I was freed, I went and ate three Big Macs. I remember chomping away on them made me realize I was back in society."

Statements from ministry bureaucrats that Youth A is "cured" of the demons that drove him to brutal murder and assurances that he will no longer commit crime can't conceal the bare facts from the National Police Agency that tell a chilling story -- 57.4 percent of all juveniles convicted for violent crimes end up breaking the law yet again.

"Scores of the kids I've interviewed in the process of looking into reformatories have showed little sign of remorse for the offenses they've committed," juvenile crime expert Tano tells Weekly Playboy.

"Youth A is known for being a hard case (for years he refused to meet family members when they went to visit him). There's a high likelihood he's only pretending to have reformed so he can get out on the streets again."

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