IN LATE May, the severed head of an 11-year-old boy, Jun Hase,
who had been missing for three days, was found outside the gates
of a school in Kobe. The rest of his body was discovered the
same afternoon. A note in the boy's mouth predicted more
murders; in a letter to a local newspaper the murderer
threatened to kill three people a week. On June 28th, police
arrested a boy of 14 who, they say, confessed not just to
killing Jun Hase, but also to attacking two schoolgirls in
March, one of whom died.  The murder and the age of the suspect
have provoked a bout of soul-searching in Japan. “The killing
comes amid an increase in the frequency and savagery of crimes
committed by young people,” thundered the Yomiuri, a right-
leaning newspaper. “The investigation of the Kobe killing must
offer new insights into how our faulty society can be repaired.”
Some observers blame Japan's high-pressure education system.
Even Ryutaro Hashimoto, the prime minister, fretted that this
might be the cause.  Yet murder is still aston