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Mental Health as Public Peace: Kaneko Junji and the Promotion of Psychiatry in Modern Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2004

JANICE MATSUMURA
JANICE MATSUMURA
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
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Extract

On June 8, 2001, Takuma Mamoru, a former psychiatric patient, broke into the Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka City and killed eight schoolchildren. This incident, which journalists have described as the Ikeda Massacre, resurrected public concerns about the mentally ill. The Osaka District Court declared that psychiatric evaluations had revealed that Takuma was sane enough to recognise the criminal nature of his actions. Discussion among the public and officials nevertheless remained focussed on the question of how to handle suspects in criminal cases who are not fit to stand trial as a result of psychiatric disorders. In August 2003, the same month that Takuma was sentenced to death, the National Diet passed legislation that could compel defendants, even those found innocent, to enter or regularly visit a mental hospital if judges and psychiatrists deemed them mentally ill and possessing a propensity to commit crimes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 2004 , pp. 899 - 930
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This study was supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of Regina and Simon Fraser University. The author also wishes to acknowledge the following for their support and advice on the final as well as earlier drafts of this article: E. Patricia Tsurumi, Suzuki Akihito, Matsubara Yōko, Richard Mitchell, Diana E. Wright, B.T. Wakabayashi, Eizawa Kōji, Sato Yoriko, Mary-Lynn Stewart, Andre Gerolymatos, Jacob Eyferth, and the late John Hutchinson.