Re: Homeless hunting

[Taro Toporific]

Teen attacks on homeless signal dark days for Japan

Another [boy] said he wished to eliminate the homeless, who he said made underground shopping malls smell bad.

Middle-aged people smell.

Dr Shoji Nakamura...works for the cosmetics giant Shiseido..

[The smell] is called nonenal: a greasy, oily odour, people over the age of 40 develop it and young people do not have it.

"Young women in particular have recently become hyper-sensitive to body odours especially of the older generation," he says.

Cultural change:
Dr Nakamura believes people are so sensitive to smell because Japanese society is changing.
"In the past, three generations lived in one house together," he says.
"Everyone lived in close quarters so they got used to many different smells."
"Now people often live alone and so they are more sensitive to smells of others."

[cstaylor]

There's a law that I'd vote for (if I could vote in this country)... mandatory bathing every morning for all people over 40, SOAP REQUIRED.

[Taro Toporific]

Teen attacks on homeless signal dark days for Japan

wished to eliminate the homeless.

Actually, the creepy Japanese phrase for this general crime is "Oyaji gari" (mugging old farts). This is a delinquent's crime to rob money from weak looking oyajis. I think the "hunting the homeless" is being grouped with "Oyaji gari"

Oyaji gari is creepy in Japanese because gari means "to play with" such as "to play with cats." The phrase is at least 10 years old as far I can remember. See the following...

Crimes of brutality committed by juveniles started attracting public attention over a decade ago.
In one memorable incident, a group of 10 youths, including five junior high students, attacked and murdered two homeless men in Yokohama [1989]...
Recent years have witnessed what seems to be a further escalation of cruelty, giving rise to an inescapable sense of crisis. Cases of truly ruthless violence directed at the weak or helpless for seemingly trifle reasons have stood out.

police have created a new crime classification: oyaji gari, or geezer hunting. Police don't keep stats on such crimes, but say they are increasingly routine.

Japanese police usually do not arrest minors who are involved in criminal or delinquent activities like drug use, prostitution, or oyaji-gari cases. The kids have drawn the obvious conclusion. "It's easy money, and the sense that it is a crime doesn't weigh very heavily with them," pointed out a researcher from the National Police Agency. http://www.smn.co.jp/tks/key/0144k01e.html