Author: Japan Reacts Editorial

A 73-year-old man petted the head of a child he didn’t know — and was shoved to the ground by the child’s father, who was standing nearby, breaking a bone in the process. Security camera footage capturing the whole incident has gone viral online, sparking debate over whether the man’s actions were appropriate.

On a 5ch thread, opinions split right down the middle: some defended the father, saying “it’s the guy’s own fault for touching someone else’s kid without asking” and “instantly neutralizing a potential threat is just common sense,” while others countered that “breaking someone’s bone is way too far” and “in Japan you’d get reported to the police just for saying hello.”

A stranger suddenly pats your child’s head. Do you take it as an act of affection — or as a red flag that says “don’t touch my kid without asking”?

As awareness of sex crimes and abductions targeting children grows, that sense of acceptable distance is shifting. In Japan, there was even a case where a local government flagged “patting a child’s head” itself as suspicious-person behavior in a public safety alert, which sparked its own controversy.

And now, far away in Singapore, a single incident has ignited a similarly heated debate.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Overseas] “Is patting someone else’s kid’s head ‘suspicious’ now?” 73-year-old man petted a girl’s head, got knocked down and broke a bone… security cam footage sparks huge debate“

Agriculture Minister Suzuki, who had previously said he wouldn’t intervene in rice prices, has reversed course and announced he wants to buy back government reserve rice before this year’s rice harvest begins. Even with experts pointing to a rice glut, the move reveals his real intention: he doesn’t want rice prices to fall. On 5ch, the discussion ranged widely — some suspect he’s prioritizing protecting farmers back home in Yamagata, others raised the vested-interest ties with JA (the national agricultural cooperative), and still others compared the price of imported rice.

Farm Minister Suzuki, who was supposed to “not intervene in rice prices,” declares he “wants to buy back reserve rice before the harvest starts”… his real intention despite a rare rice glut: he “absolutely does not want rice prices to fall”

8/28 (Fri) 6:02 AM JST

Daily Shincho

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Farm Minister Suzuki, who was supposed to ‘not intervene in rice prices,’ says he wants to buy back reserve rice before the harvest starts… ‘I absolutely do not want rice prices to fall’ despite the glut.”