Japan’s aging criminals….
At 70, Yasumasa Matsuzaki did not look especially dangerous. He wasjust a nuisance to the workers at a convenience store because of hishabit of reading magazines without ever buying anything.
So after one marathon three-hour session, the manager of the shop in Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture, snapped and threw him out.
Five minutes later, Mr Matsuzaki returned with a chainsaw and threatened the staff before returning to the magazine rack.
“He was absorbed in reading even after we called the police,” saidthe manager after Mr Matsuzaki had been charged with forcibledisruption of business. “He was very scary.”
The incident last week is part of a wave of so-called grey crime inJapan. The percentage of over-65s in prison has trebled in the pastdecade and exceeds 10 per cent of the total prison population – fourtimes the UK figure. Japan has the highest rate of incarceration forpensioners in the industrialised world.