That is my impression as well. there has been steps taken to reform the youth law so that people over 16 (?) could take responsability for their crimes in adult courts, when the age is 20 now, well, i am not up to date on the subject so... all the recent violent crimes involving under 20 people have strongly shaken the public opinion. but most adults fail to see that what kids do is merely a reaction to a very violent world set up by the adults. so the same adults keep on saying that it was not like this before blablabla (seems they forgot what they/their parents did during the war.)
> But what I am interested in is latent violence, and my sense is that much of
> it is siphoned of into fantasyland. There is some of that in the U.S., but
> violence is more often directly expressed into the social environment - even
> the violent fantasies of Hollywood are more cathartic release than
> sublimation here.
i don't go to the movies here a lot, but seeing the posters there must be 70% horror stuff, 20% animation movies and some marginal 'mainstream' (well...) productions. i am not sure about fantasyland, but about sports teachers beatings the kids with baseball bats i have some evidence. and it is not like they are fired or anything... and this is the tip of the iceberg.
> This would seem to suggest that the "anti-traditional" is immediately
> percieved as political.
sorry, maybe i misunderstood the original meaning. i mean what people 'abroad' see as anti-tradition in japan is mostly a 'normal' reaction to social oppression (esp in the case of the seijin ceremony). i am not sure there is an immediate political perception of the social relations. even in big companies where the vertical relations are explicit, because (?) there is no external reference (a branch union for ex) there are problems identifying political issues (thus impairing organization). well, i am no sociologist or unionist and all this is mostly gathered from discussion with friends so take it for what it is worth.
jc helary