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Japan ponders crime
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JAPAN began pondering ways to deal with crime committed by the mentally ill on Monday as families mourned eight children slain in a stabbing spree at an elementary school in a suburban community north of Osaka last week.
Symbolizing changes ahead for Japan's schools, which have prided themselves on being open to the community, two security guards stood at the gates of the prestigious elementary school where Friday's rampage occurred.
Psychological counsellors were being mobilized to visit students at home to help them cope with a trauma that has left many too frightened to return to school.
The killing -- the latest in a string of high-profile violent crimes to jolt Japan's image as a safe haven from crime -- has sparked debate on how to tighten security without making fortresses out of the nation's schools.
The Education Ministry on Monday instructed school boards across the nation to conduct safety checks at the schools under their jurisdiction by Thursday this week.
Politicians and experts are also pondering how to deal with crimes committed by the mentally ill.
On Monday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told senior officials to study the possibility of changing the current system to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.
The suspect had previously been arrested for lacing teachers' tea with tranquilizers at a school where he worked as a janitor. Deemed mentally ill, he was not brought to trial and was instead hospitalized and eventually released.
Lawmakers will face a delicate task in attempting to balance the rights and need for treatment of the mentally ill with achieving the goal of greater public safety.
The horror began in the suburb of Osaka, Japan's second-largest metropolis, when a former janitor with a history of mental illness walked through the front gate of the school unimpeded, entered several classrooms and began wordlessly stabbing almost two dozen children. (SD-Agencies)
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