"A Liberal Democratic Party government panel on juvenile law proposed that the minimum age for criminal punishment be lowered to 14 from the current 16." Japanese Youth Crime on the Rise TOKYO (AP) -- The number of serious crimes, including murder, committed by Japanese youths surged during the first 11 months of this year, according to a police report published Tuesday. A total of 144,228 young people between the ages of 14 and 19 were arrested or taken into protective custody for alleged criminal offenses through November, the report said, up 3.1 percent from the same period last year. The report also said 257 were arrested for serious crimes, including murder and attempted murder. That figure was the highest since police began compiling such statistics in 1972. Rising juvenile delinquency has led to a new round of soul-searching about Japan's education system and the way children are raised. Previous discussions have cited the tremendous pressure on Japanese children to conform, and to do well in highly competitive school examinations. In one of the most prominent cases this year, a 13-year-old junior high school student in Tochigi prefecture, or state, north of Tokyo, stabbed his teacher to death in January after being scolded for tardiness. The report did not provide any analysis for the rise in juvenile crimes. The report came one day after a ruling Liberal Democratic Party panel on juvenile law proposed that the minimum age for criminal punishment be lowered to 14 from the current 16. Last week, the Education Ministry said reported cases of beatings and other violence committed by school children at Japanese schools, jumped to 29,000 last year, up from about 11,000 in 1996.
