Knife

Knife has been an important part of our life, mostly for cooking. But in Japan, it is also the major murder weapon. Today, a man in his twenties killed a woman, a snack bar owner, with a knife he bought at a 100 yen shop.
Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. Still, it is hard to stop people from murdering, guns available or not. The only difference is that since gun (hunting ones) procession is illegal in Japan, there are less murder case than most of the "advanced" countries, much less than those killed in traffic accident or by cancers. The following table shows the statics of murders in 5 countries. "R" is the ratio of crimes.

	France		Germany		British		US		Japan
	No	R	No	R	No	R	No	R	No	R
１９８８	２５６７	４．６	２５４３	４．１	９９２	２．０	２０６７５	８．５	１４７６	１．２
１９８９	２５６２	４．６	２４１５	３．９	１０１７	２．０	２１５００	８．７	１３４９	１．１
１９９０	２５２６	４．５	２４１９	３．９	１１４５	２．３	２３４３８	９．４	１２６１	１．０
１９９１	２６１４	４．６	２７４３	３．４	１２８０	２．５	２４７０３	９．８	１２５２	１．０
１９９２	２７０２	４．７	３３０８	４．１	１２５５	２．４	２３７６０	９．３	１２７５	１．０
１９９３	２８１８	４．９	４２５９	５．３	１３３１	２．６	２４５２６	９．５	１２７２	１．０
１９９４	２６９６	４．７	３７５１	４．６	１３７７	２．７	２３３２６	９．０	１３２１	１．１
１９９５	２５６３	４．４	３９６０	４．９	１３７９	２．７	２１６０６	８．２	１３１２	１．０
１９９６	２３８５	４．１	３５３１	４．３	１３５３	２．６	１９６４５	７．４	１２５７	１．０
１９９７年	２０８５	３．６	３３１２	４．０	１３９１	２．７	１８２０８	６．８	１３２３	１．０
１９９８年	２１５０	３．７	２８９７	３．５	１４２６	２．７	１６９７４	６．３	１４６６	１．２
１９９９年	１９９７	３．４	２８５１	３．６	１５１６	２．９	１５５２２	５．７	１３３８	１．１
２０００年	２１６６	３．７	２７７０	３．５	１５５８	２．９	１５５８６	５．５	１４６２	１．２
２００１年	２２８９	３．９	２６４１	３．２	１７４８	３．４	１５９８０	５．６	１４３６	１．１