The so-called "invincible person" was proposed by Japanese media person Hiroyuki Nishimura in 2008. It refers to a person who has lost everything and has no concern and no scruples.

Source: Global Times

[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Editor's words: After former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was attacked and died, a focus of the attacker Takaya Yamakawa appeared in Japan, that is, "Invincible Man". The so-called "invincible person" was proposed by Japanese media person Hiroyuki Nishimura in 2008. It refers to a person who has lost everything and has no concern and no scruples. They may do whatever they want, including revenge on the society that displeased him. In recent years, due to economic downturn, disadvantaged groups are not valued, and some personal factors, the number of crimes committed by "invincible people" in Japan has been increasing. After attacking Abe on the mountain, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said that this is a "challenge to democracy", but Professor Shigesuo Uino from the University of Tokyo believes that it is not a challenge to democracy, but rather a failure of democracy.

This group "death suicide" by killing others

"too tired". This is the reason Yamakami Toriya resigned for the first time in April this year. He finally resigned on May 15, and then found his last job in his life through an labor company, , a labor company, to transport goods with a forklift. This job lasted less than two months, and then the attack on Abe that shocked the world occurred.

For the "post-80s" on the mountain, "tired" may not only be physical fatigue, but also mental despair, and these are important reasons why he eventually embarked on the road of crime. According to Japanese media reports such as " Asahi Shimbun ", because his mother was addicted to unified education after his father's death, the family of Shanshang was very poor, which led to Shanshang, who had originally studied in an elite high school and had excellent grades, but did not go to college, but to a technical school. The uncle who sponsored his studies said that if it weren't for poverty, he would have chosen a different career path in the mountains. After

After graduation, Shanshang served in Maritime Self-Defense Force for 2 years and 9 months until 2005. After that, he worked as a temporary worker. In order to change his destiny, Shanshang also obtained the qualification certificate of real estate transaction expert and financial planner in his spare time, but this did not improve his economic situation. After the attack, the police found that they had lived in a house with a size of 6 tatami on the mountain for more than ten years, with a rent of about 35,000 yen per month (1 yuan is about 20 yen). A former colleague on the mountain said that the middle-aged man is usually quiet and rarely interacts with others.

On the mountain, I also hoped to improve the lives of my brother and sister through self-sacrifice. His uncle said that when he was serving in the Self-Defense Force, he committed suicide after buying a life insurance policy on the mountain in his early 20s, hoping that his brother and sister would benefit from the insurance compensation. However, the mountain did not "get it". The poor economic situation, no marriage, almost no interpersonal relationship, and his brother died of suicide in 2015, all of which made the mountain despair about life, and he transferred his resentment about life to Abe, who is closely related to the Unified Church. Sources revealed that Yamaakaki told the police: "I have no money and think I will die in July, so I decided to attack Abe before that." After Abe's attack, many Japanese media discussed the relationship between Abe's death and the "invincible man". Some Japanese media bluntly stated that Abe died at the hands of "invincible people".

"Living in this society is painful, and dying is easier." After Abe was assassinated, Hiroyuki Nishimura, the proposer of the concept of "invincible man", posted an article online to analyze the cases of suicide and indiscriminate killing of innocent people in Japan. He believes that in addition to about 20,000 suicides per year, there is also a group in Japan, that is, people who "death" by killing others. Jumi Tada, a psychiatrist who graduated from the Department of Medicine at Osaka University, posted an article online that she believed that such crimes were "expanded suicide", that is, those who had suicidal thoughts because of despair in life, forcibly dragging others to die together for reasons such as "not wanting to die alone" and "suicide is terrible". Nishimura believes that because this type of person is not afraid of death or other punishment, he does not care about the impact of his criminal behavior on others. The "Japan Today" website reported on the 17th that before the attack on Abe, Yamakami had sent a letter to a critic of the Unification Church.In the letter, Yamakami said that he had spent time to obtain guns and no longer cared about the "political significance and consequences of Abe's death." The idea on the mountain is in line with the typical thinking of "invincible man".

Japan's "invincible person" is similar to the "lone wolf" in European and American countries. Compared with Europe and the United States, "lone wolf" crimes are rare in Japan. Even so, in the past 10 years, such cases have occurred at a frequency once every one to two years. The case of injury with a knife outside the examination room of the University of Tokyo in January this year, the Odakyu line tram attack in 2021 and the Osaka clinic arson case, the 2019 Kyoto animation arson case and the assassination of Kawasaki elementary school students, the 2018 Tokaido Shinkansen knife murder case, the 2016 Kanagawa Welfare House murder case, and the 2008 Akihabara blood case, all attacks initiated by "lone wolf". On July 26, Tomota Kato, the creator of the Akihabara bloody case, was executed.

" Nihon Keizai Shimbun " stated that unlike the terrorist attacks launched by extremist organizations in the 1970s and the sarin gas attacks launched by the Aum Shinri Church in 1995, the "lone wolf" attacks were launched by individuals for their own motives and resentment. According to the analysis of the portraits of such attackers by the Japanese SPA, "Invincible Man" or "Lone Wolf" is close to the criminals who are indiscriminately killed by the Japanese Ministry of Justice. Statistics show that 77% of these attackers earn less than 100,000 yen per month or have no income. Of the 52 such people, only two were married. Many of these attackers have no friends.

According to Australian media reports, the murders recorded by Japan have been steadily decreasing since the 1960s. However, Japanese media and analysts such as "news-postseven" news network believe that crimes committed by "invincible people" are increasing. A 2021 survey by the Japanese Police Agency showed that respondents who believe that Japan's public security "deteriorated" and "overall deteriorated" in the past 10 years accounted for 64% of all respondents. The fear of crime among Japanese people is also growing, believing that violent crime is rising.

"Informal working class" accounts for 40% of the labor force

"It is the family's misfortune that makes the mountain become an 'invincible person'." Japanese netizen Yuki Fukunaga wrote. However, Lu Hao, deputy director of the Comprehensive Strategy Research Office of the Institute of Japan, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the reporter of " Global Times " that in addition to personal factors, the Japanese economy has been in a state of stagnation for a long time, the increase in internal social contradictions, and some factors including national culture are important reasons for the emergence of "invincible people".

Analysis of the perpetrators of the previous indiscriminate killing of innocent people can be found that many of them belong to the "employment ice age generation". These people are currently around 40 years old. When they started working after graduation, they happened to encounter the collapse of Japanese bubble economy . Bloomberg said that in the context of Japan's economic downturn, in order to cut costs and protect older employees, Japanese companies adopted a temporary contract system and thus created a new informal working class, which now accounts for about 40% of Japan's total labor force. Compared with formal employees, such "contract workers" receive less wages and benefits. Some people believe that the temporary contract system is a "powerful tool for poverty."

"Nikkei Shimbun" said that after the bursting of the bubble economy, Japan's "lost 10 years" became a lost 20 or even 30 years without knowing it. OECD report last year showed that in the past 30 years, the average wage in Japan has increased by only 4.4%. According to the analysis of "National Sports", Japan's relative poverty rate rose from 12% in 1985 to 15.4% in 2018, which means that about 1 in every six people in Japan is "relatively poor". Japan sets the relative poverty line at an annual income of 1.27 million yen. If a person's income is lower than this number, it is relative poverty.

Poverty does not necessarily give birth to "invincible people", but "invincible people" are almost all poor people, especially when the gap between the rich and the poor in society is getting wider and some people are hard to get rewards no matter how hard they work and feel that they have been abandoned by society. " Abenomics " just leads to Japan's wealth being more concentrated in the hands of a few people. According to Reuters in 2021, Japanese government data and surveys show that from 2012 to 2020, the nominal salary of Japanese employees increased by only 1.2%.From 2014 to 2019, the average wealth of Japanese households fell by 3.5%, but the wealth of the richest 10% is increasing. The unfair distribution of social wealth has led to a significant increase in conflicts within Japanese society, which is the economic and social background of the emergence of "invincible people".

isolate and helpless, unable to receive listening and help, which is also the reason for the increase in "invincible people". Japanese Minister for Economic Regeneration, Oishiro Yamashima said at a campaign event for the Senate election on July 3 that the Japanese government would "never listen" to anything proposed by the opposition party. Some people believe that this statement just shows that in Japan, the voices of minority groups are difficult to hear and value. Hiroyuki Nishimura gave an example in his recent article that Japanese security guards, police and many people's indifference to homeless people send a signal to vulnerable groups, that is, "(you) go to places that others cannot see and die casually." Nishimura believes that if society continues to send such signals, the marginalized and vulnerable groups who think they are excluded will naturally not feel that they "must abide by social order."

is withdrawn and lack of social interaction, which has also promoted the continuous increase in the number of innocent murders in Japan. Many Japanese are forced to be single and have no children because of limited employment prospects, according to Bloomberg. Japan's 2015 census shows that 3.4 million people aged 40 to 50 are not married and live with their parents. Many people have become " hibernating tribe " due to reasons such as inferiority complex, neither working nor socializing, and living a self-enclosed life. A survey released by the Japanese government in 2019 showed that there are about 613,000 middle-aged "hibernating people" in Japan. Some analysts said that many "invincible people" have few friends and few people to talk to, so they are prone to getting "sharp" on some issues and then going to extremes.

"This is a problem of right to survive"

After Abe was attacked and died, some Japanese netizens said that violence is wrong and the problem should be solved with speech. Hiroyuki Nishimura believes that this is a "beautiful word". He says anyone who wants to say it, but society will not change, and the problem will not be solved because of this. "This is not a problem of speech, but a problem of right to survival."

Because there are few red flags before the incident, it is difficult to detect crimes committed by "Invincible People" in advance. Also, because such people are not afraid of being arrested or imprisoned, it is difficult to eliminate related crimes through legal deterrence.

Regarding how to cut off the cause of such cases, Nishimura said that the trend of using "just not working hard enough" to force the weak will be better off, because this practice is likely to force the weak to retaliate. He said that in order to reduce "invincible people", the Japanese government should increase capital investment in improving people's living standards and provide them with "basic income". Regardless of whether they have a job or not, a certain amount of funds will be distributed monthly so that the people will at least no longer be homeless and ensure their food and accommodation. In addition, Nishimura proposed that contact between people outside work can be increased and everyone can participate in some community activities to ensure that the people do not have extreme thoughts.

Japanese ITmedia website writer Takuya Futan said that in order to turn "invincible people" back to ordinary people and not make ordinary people "invincible", the government needs to improve the social security network, take measures to make "invincible people" have a way to go even if they make mistakes, so that there is something worth paying attention to, and increase their crime costs. Psychiatrist Tatsumi believes that companies narrowing the salary gap between formal and informal employees and strengthening support for employees to seek jobs will help reduce "invincible people".

Discover the signal that the "Invincible Man" plans to commit crimes as soon as possible, which is one of the means to prevent related crimes. According to Japanese media reports, police found that signals of such crimes include threat information posted online, or that someone has increased interest in homemade weapons. Before attacking Abe, Yamakami expressed dissatisfaction on his Twitter , and also expressed his thoughts on assassinating Abe in a letter he sent.

[Global Times Special Correspondent in Japan License Global Times Reporter Fan Lingzhi Global Times Special Correspondent Wen Yu Yan Yang]