By Hitomi Tanaka

On January 21st, the storekeeper of a used bookstore in Kawasaki caught a boy in the third year of a junior high school stealing six books from the shop and called the police because the boy would not tell his name or address to the storekeeper. When a police officer required the boy to follow him voluntarily, the boy ran away suddenly and entered a railway crossing. Unfortunately, a train ran over him. Soon after this tragedy, about 20 people sent e-mail to the shopkeeper blaming him for the boyﾕs death with such strong expressions like "murder" and "lack of consideration." The shopkeeper decided to close his shop, but after that he received encouragement from more than 1,000 people. Finally, this bookstore reopened on February 3rd.

It is not important that this shopkeeper called police and it caused the boy to run away and die. We should consider the boy might not have recognized shoplifting was a real crime. The Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry did a survey of shoplifting in bookstores through questionnaires last June. It proved that the average amount of damage from shoplifting per store was more than 2.1 million yen per year and the number of shoplifters who aim to make a profit from selling stolen books is increasing. The number of people shoplifting just to get a little money has been increasing. It seems that they, like the boy, think it isnﾕt a serious matter and can be overlooked.

Actually, some shops consider it will influence the life of young shoplifters negatively and they avoid calling the police about shoplifting. The result is that most shoplifters think nothing of it and it causes a lack of awareness that shoplifting is a crime. It doesnﾕt matter how serious the crime is. Thereﾕs no way that shoplifters can think shoplifting is a merely something that can be overlooked.

Also, in connection with this tragedy, it is impossible to understand why about 20 people sent e-mail to the shopkeeper using the word ﾒmurder,ﾓ because the boy wasnﾕt killed by the storekeeper. It is common for shoplifters to run away and for storekeepers to chase after them. Nobody lays blame because they clearly know that shoplifting is a crime and is socially forbidden. This tragedy reflects this truth. It is more important that people teach their children that shoplifting is a real crime in order to avoid such a tragedy again.

This tragedy causes us to consider not only shoplifting, but also various crimes and morals. Also, we have to contemplate how to teach children good morals while crimes such as murder, arson and so on occur in everyday life. If children do something bad, adults have to teach them how bad it is, which will in turn help children to have good morals. It is wrong that some adults donﾕt scold other peopleﾕs children when they see them doing something wrong. We have to train children not only in homes and schools, but also in society.