There is a lot of debate about guns in America. Usually when something happens that make the news, people trot out the statistics from Japan and try to make the case that it is a safe place because they have laws against private ownership of guns.

Really, if you want to talk about the matter honestly you need to stop doing that. There are things you can talk about in a serious debate about firearm laws, but I lived in Japan. I didn't just live there, I learned the language to the highest level of fluency the government tests for (a rare feat for an American), I lived and worked among the Japanese and got to even think a bit like them. Most non-Japanese tend to not learn much of the language and stick around other non-Japanese and yet those are the ones that seem to talk the most about what Japanese are and are not like.

When you talk about Japan and its crime rates, there is a hell of a lot more than just the laws on the books. If laws against guns were the reason for less firearm deaths, then what is to explain why people say they can leave a purse on a train and have it returned to them intact? Or that people say they feel safer walking down the street at night?

It's the culture. It's the way they are raised. It is the message they get from childhood. It is what they do in many, many aspects of their life that all combine to make Japan safer across the board.

And many of the things they do that make Japan safe most Americans would not want implemented here.

Let us get something out of the way, and let the screaming begin. Looking at the figures for murder as a whole, America is greater than Japan as a percentage of the population. There is no doubt about that. And yes, firearms are used in a bit over half of those homicides.

But here is the part that people are going to scream about. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the population of the US, and yet they commit 52 percent of the murders. That is four times the amount they should be doing if they were killing at the same rate as non-blacks. Yet we have trouble even acknowledging this fact, and I am sure I will be called a racist just for pointing it out.

My point is that the gun laws apply for black and whites, and yet one group commits crimes with them (usually against members of the same race) far more often than other groups. It isn't about the law on the books, but the culture, etc that I said was the same factor in Japan's lower rate.

Actually, I don't like talking about blacks as a whole, or just saying "black culture" in contrast to "white culture." There isn't just one culture in America for any race. People in New England do act a bit differently from people in Florida. People who are raised in one social strata are more likely to do some things and less likely to do others than people born in other social circles. And just as looking at Americans as a whole paints a different picture than looking at the crime rates per race, I am convinced that there is a sub-culture that is comprised of blacks that shift the numbers for everyone with the same skin color. If you were raised by a mother who started spitting out babies at age 15 with no job and no man to support her, ended up raised by grandparents because your birth mother was deemed incompetent and gravitate to the drug trade, it is not surprising if you turn out to be a real shit of a human being. Take a look at this statistic for murder rates and the drug trade. The short version is that if you are not involved in dealing drugs and don't hang out with those that do, you have a pretty damn low chance of getting shot to death.

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2013/tle747-20131201-05.html

As the article says," Guns don't kill people—4% of tough inner city neighborhoods do."

Ok, so you see more blacks than whites being raised by welfare mothers and the same can be said for people standing on the corner trying to sell you crack. Why is that? Well, not something I am going to deal with here.

But look at Japan. They don't have either a major drug trade or welfare mothers. Since the drug trade in America is related to a lot of murders, don't you think this has something to do with the lack of homicides in Japan? Gee, you think?

But the reality goes deeper. Japanese culture has many aspects that combine to raise kids so that you have to look for even a raised voice, let alone a deadly assault.

Here are just a few examples. They aren't going to please a lot of people.

According the following article, 68 percent of American black women who gave birth the previous year were not married.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/single-motherhood-increases-census-report_n_3195455.html

While this article (a bit older) puts the rate for Japan at just about 2 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/health/13mothers.html?_r=0

Feeling uncomfortable yet?

Of course, just because there are those figures does not mean they are related to crime rates. Japanese also eat more rice than black Americans. I am aware that correlation does not imply causation. But let me explain just how there really is a causation with the numbers.

The subject of delayed gratification has been studied, but the results are not widely known. Walter Mischel of Stanford University is most famous for the marshmallow experiment. Children were given the choice of one marshmallow immediately or two if they could wait a short amount of time. Over the years, the two groups, those that gave in and ate the single treat and those that waited and got two, were followed and their result examined over the course of their lives. Those that had waited to get two snacks were found to grow up being more stable, less likely to get in trouble with the law, do better in school and work, less likely to divorce etc. The ones that gave in and got only one marshmallow were of course less likely to do well in life and more likely to be behind bars decades later.

This study is known to most of my friends and is quoted in a lot of books.

Less well known is an experiment Mischel did in Trinidad. He went there to examine ethnic stereotypes. The Indian families had a reputation among the Africans as being soulless savers who lacked a zest for life, while the Africans were looked on as likely to indulge rather than save or think about the future. MIschel tried a variation of his famous marshmallow experiment between the two groups. Sure enough, the Africans were far more likely to show an inability to delay gratification for a larger reward.

But….. then Mischel took another look at the numbers. Instead of looking at the results based on race, he split them into two groups of kids raised in one parent households and those raised by two parents. The differences between the two racial groups disappeared. An Indian child raised by a singe parent was much more likely to accept the smaller reward than an African kid raised by two parents. More specifically, while about half of both the Indian and African kids raised with a single father were able to to put off their need for gratification to get the bigger treat, none of the kids of either race raised without a father were able to wait for the greater reward.

Think about that for a moment. Not a single kid raised without a father were able to delay gratification in the 1958 study.

This study has not gotten much press. And I can imagine why. Despite the fact that I knew about the marshmallow study and the long term benefits of having the ability to delay gratification at a young age, it wasn't until I read the book, Willpower-Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeiter and John Tierney and found it on page 207 was I aware of the implications of having a father in the home.

Can you imagine how those on the left who point to Japan as an example to emulate for violence control would react to the facts of this study that say that raising a kid without a father places great handicaps on them?

Oh, and it gets worse. Not only are kids born to single mothers almost unheard of, but divorce in Japan is a hell of a lot lower than it is in America. Parents do stay together for the sake of their children. Somehow I don't think the feminists that tend to lean toward the left side on issues would like that idea. They would hate the fact that women are expected to quit their jobs by about age 25 and start being at-home mothers. Yes, things are changing, (and the crime rate as well) but it is not that common to find a woman much older than that in the work force, and its pretty damn rare for a woman to stay in a job after they have their first kid. I know a few, but the standard is that a kid is raised in a two parent home and the mother sacrifices her career in order to stay at home and take care of the kids. I can think of several cases of adultery, none of which I can recall led to a divorce. The woman who was cheated on seems to have just swallowed the shame and stayed with the cheating husband, who frequently went on to commit more of the same.

Oh, I can just imagine all the groups that are going to send me hate mail. And of course, I think the statistics don't tell the whole story. I think that someone that has a spouse die and has to raise a kid is probably a lot better at the job than someone who made the conscious choice to raise a kid without a father. And those that do it without having even a way of supporting themselves are probably complete crap parents. Worse, if they spit out 6 kids, then that means they turn out as many crappy kids as three regular families which turn out normal kids. I have yet to find a study on how many kids of welfare mothers turn out to be criminals, but my friends in law enforcement and social services admit they see it almost every day.

But let me piss even more people off! A few things that stand out about Japanese culture are a dislike for the different, less tolerance for bad behavior and a greater sense of responsibility.

Japan is one of the few cultures that I wouldn't be surprised to hear a mother says, "If all your friends jump off a cliff, why wouldn't you do the same?" There are sayings about how the nail that sticks out gets nailed down. In contrast to American's pride in our diversity, they take pride in being one people and one way of viewing things. Those that stand out are crucified in various ways. Something like 99 percent of kids in junior high and above wear uniforms to school. Don't you think that has an influence? And in such a culture, being cast out for your actions is one of the greatest fears a kid growing up can have. You toe the line of the group or they won't accept you. And to not be cast out you follow the rules set down and that is how you are trained. The yakuza are known for wearing outlandish outfits and gaudy tattoos to show that they are a part of their own culture and have turned their back on normal society. There is no real middle ground.

If you associate with people with criminal records, you get cast out so everyone pretty much gathers into these two groups. And the yakuza have a better ability to police themselves than most American street gangs. I know of cases where actors went to parties that yakuza also attended and they put their careers in danger until they made a big show of regret. Compare this with all the politicians who have been caught smoking crack and yet still get elected in North America.

Things are changing, but it still is pretty rare for a criminal to be held up as a role model like you find in the rap music industry. The Japanese parents I know would probably beat the hell out of their kids if they caught them idolizing people with a criminal bent.

But really, the biggest thing that seems to contribute to the lack of crime seems to be a greater sense of responsibility. If something goes wrong with their career, the Japanese I know tend to ask what they did to get in that position and what they can do to correct the problem. As an American, I have to admit that Americans seem a lot more likely to blame something else in the same case. There are even American politicians that seem to have careers solely built on telling one group that their troubles are caused by another group. People blame McDonald's for being fat and not them stuffing too many calories into their mouth instead of ordering the salad. And of course, we seem to blame the guns, or television, or something else when a murder takes place instead of the killer. This aspect is one of the things I really admire about Japanese culture and perhaps the number one thing I miss now that I live in America. I wish Americans would stop blaming the one percent, or the man, or the boss, or their parents and just start to take responsibility for their lives.

At the same time, I have to point out that all this has its costs. I moved my family back to America because I wanted my kids raised here and not there. I worked in education and saw the terror kids who were a little different looked at school where they were expected to be clones of everyone else. There isn’t home schooling like you have in America, but there are numerous kids so frightened of what will happen to them that most school districts set up special classrooms for them. I've drank a lot with guys who really made a mistake in who they married (and I am sure that females do the same with other females.) I value being my own person too much to really ever be completely Japanese. Take a look at these figures if you really think we should be more like Japan.

When you talk about people people killed with guns in America those with an agenda tend to lump suicides in with murder. Looking at the total of homicides across the board, you get the number of 5.3 per 100,000. Homicides with firearms account for a bit over half that number. Here is the source.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

Ok, looking at suicides you get a higher number, 6.3 per 100,000 in America. That is for all suicides, not just with a firearm. Again, here is the source,

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

Now some people would say that if firearms were not so available that people would not be able to kill themselves so easily and the number would be much lower. But lets look at Japan. According to the following source, the suicide rate in Japan is 24 per 100,000.

http://thediplomat.com/2013/01/searching-for-answers-japans-suicide-epidemic/

So, to make this clear. If you add the 6.3 per 100,000 for total number of suicides to the 5.3 per 100,000 total number of homicides in America (not just those with firearms in either case) you get 11.6 per 100,000 which is less than half the number of people that kill themselves in Japan. Grim news indeed. People seem to be dying in greater numbers in Japan according to these numbers, but they are killing themselves. Do we really want to follow the example of Japan in this?

So, I hope I have shown that the subject of number of deaths by firearms between the two countries are more a matter of things in the culture than the laws we pass about firearms. I haven't even gone over half the things that I think have an influence on Japan's safer status. I also hope I have shown that a lot of these facts are not going to be eagerly embraced for adoption by those that point to Japan as an example we should follow. But most of all, I hope I cause people to think about things like this instead of going by the latest sound bite on television or meme on facebook. If I see the same type of superficial comparisons when we talk about Europe, or things relating to economic matters between countries. I am certain that the discussions about minimum wage laws, immigration, etc are similarly complicated by other factors instead of just a single law on the books. Any screaming, insults or death threats I get as a result of this blog are just icing on the cake.

Postscript, here is the link for the number of murders committed by blacks. It's source is a book which I do not have with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States