http://juiz.jp/special/

Yeah, the statistic peak for rape, robbery, and murder is right around the “Always – 三丁目の夕日” time.

When I talked with Hasegawa Mariko of Waseda Univ,who had done research on youth murder in Japan and came to the conclusion that today’s Japanese youth kill less than they did in the past.

She also blamed the media for sensationalizing youth murder.

This Todai prof came to the same conclusion.
http://www.kodomonoshiten.net/asahi000824.htm

“Story created by the Japanese media arbitrarily and artificially coining a term and presenting it as news.”

Perhaps.But at least there are some stats to back up the argument this time.

My feeling is that Japanese public talk about the “new poor” (working poor, freeters and whatnot) focused on 自己責任 for most of the decade. Most television reportage, etc. would be accusing young people of being lazy, unrealistic, not willing to work. There were hit books like 下流社会　that blamed everything on the young. It has only really been in the last year or so that the Amamiya Karin / Sekai view – that it is because the deck is stacked against them – has come to the front of press coverage.

In the same time, we see the increased circulation of the Soshokudanshi idea. This seems to me to be the dreaded 自己責任論 under another name, giving older male commentators and daytime talk uber-housewives a chance to bash the young (have their cake) and still maintain the currently sexy “working poor” structural criticism (and eat it too).