早稲田国際教養学部AO入試 The Root Cause of Global Poverty Homework

 Read the excerpt from Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop and answer the following question.

https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

Question:
The writer suggests abolishing the current policing system in the US. Do you think the same idea should be applied to the Japanese police? Why/Why not?

Answer Key

Agree:

Although many think the Japanese police is functioning well and that there is no need to abolish it, I think it better to consider abolishing the police. 

Police as the guard for those in power: That the police are not for the public but for the authority is universal. The Japanese police has been helping for the government to execute its decisions. During WWII, those who were against the war were arrested and some were attacked or killed. A well-known example is the death of Takiji Kobayashi, a novelist and communist who was tortured in prison.

Cases of police brutality: Minor cases of police brutality exist in today’s Japan. Over the past few years, those who express their opinion against the government have been targeted by the police. In 2008 in Shibuya, Tokyo, organizers of an event to see the mansion of the then prime minister Aso met a surprise arrest during the event although the event had been reported and permitted in advance. In 2019 in Hokkaido, during the midterm-election speech of PM Abe, a man who cried out loud to request Abe’s resignation was physically removed from the venue. In 2020, in Tokyo, Women silently holding picket signs to protest the policies of the administration were escorted out from the area where the PM was making a speech. Also, a Kurdish man who was going to the dentist’s by car was stopped, dragged out of the car, and restrained by the police in Shibuya, Tokyo, having his neck injured which required a month to heal in 2020.

Need for the total social transformation: Japan has been in economic downturn for decades, and the government has been overtly exploiting the public over the past eight years. The society has been aging and the income gap has been widening. Especially, the Abe administration has been cutting the budget for welfare and raising the consumption tax while bailing out big corporations. TPP and FTA with other laws will change the Japanese society into that of today’s America. Poverty will increase and crime rate will rise. The police will show their real face. To avoid the scenario, fundamental transformation of Japan into a fair society, where the existence of the police is meaningless should be worked on.