The Facts
On Friday, the Japanese police arrested 31-year-old Masanori Aoki for allegedly killing four people, including two police officers, in a rare gun and knife attack in the central prefecture of Nagano on Thursday.
Per the police, Aoki, who reportedly barricaded himself in his home after the attacks, has confessed to killing one of the officers, saying, "It's true that I shot him. I killed him."
The Spin
Narrative A
Despite a handful of high-profile incidents, such as the assassination of former PM Shinzo Abe, Japan remains one of the safest nations in the world. Crime has risen, but only to pre-COVID levels, and is overall trending downwards. The rare instances of violent crime do not reflect a significant increase in crime.
Narrative B
Japan's reputation as a safe nation is well deserved, but its methodology for collecting crime statistics needs to be revised as many important metrics are manipulated while certain crimes go underreported. We are seeing an uncovering of the hidden world of crime in the country as the public grows more fearful of crime and more skeptical of the police.