What's wrong with Japanese society?

Women's rights are a big issue in many third world countries. This is something we often forget in the west. Most industrialized countries have legal and societal protections in place to ensure the basic safety of women during routine activities like, say... riding on a crowded train.
Knowing the Japanese male pension for strange sexual fetishes and rape fantasy videos, many may be surprised that I am surprised at the news of a rape in Japan.
This rape is more disturbing than most and carries larger issues. It warrants condemnation of Japanese society in general.
Why?
A man assaulted a woman, forced her into the bathroom and raped her. Now, this is already a sad story. What makes it deplorable is the fact that it happened on a crowded train in front of an estimated 40 witnesses. Now, that's even more horrible. What's worse, not one person tried to stop the man or call the conductor or police to intervene. Not one. It's as if rape is OK as long as people agree to look the other way. This is another blot on the already well known sickness that developed in modern Japanese culture. Sorry to levy such a heavy criticism on a society rather than just an individual. But, in this case, it needs to be done. They need to know people pay attention to this type of thing and hold them accountable as a society for looking the other way. This is tantamount to condoning this type of behavior.
I remember studying about medieval Japanese culture in college. While there was a cultural agreement to not notice certain things and just pretend they never happened, I don't remember rape being one of them. Am I wrong here? What is the group psychology that allows this type of thing to happen? Any thoughts??
ADG
Sources:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070423a7.html
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/404618
http://w109.news.tpc.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/070423/4/dbuf.html (mandarin)
http://news.chinatimes.com/2007Cti/2007Cti-News/2007Cti-News-Content/0,4521,110501+112007042400024,00.html (mandarin)

My Generation? Well, my Dad's.....

This is one of the cutest and funniest vids I have seen on youtube in a long time.
I am very close to my folks (87 and 79 years old) They can be very funny at times.
This vid is great. I am going to show it to my Dad right away.

Thanks to Witty for sending this along.

上海生與死

Well, many years ago, I read the book "Life and Death in Shang Hai". I read it first in English and then read it in Chinese for practice. It was a good practice and a pretty interesting book. I had made notations in the margins for many of the words I did not know.. Well, I found my Chinese copy in the garage last week and finally set forth to read it again.. Boy, did I forget a lot of my Chinese. I found that I need to lookup words I used to know and add more notes to the margins. I am vowing to do it though. I need it. So, wish me luck.
Here is another person's take on the book in Mandarin 鄭念著的 《上海生與死》
I thought it was an intriguing story and I found myself reading the English version at least 3 or 4 chapters at night and falling to sleep, dreaming of the characters. It was very interesting. The Chinese version was also very good for Chinese study as it drew me in and I wanted to get the flavor of the author's emotions in the original language. Upon finishing the Chinese version, I was disappointed to learn that she wrote it in English first and had help translating into Chinese! OMG. Well, it was still a great read and great study material. So, hopefully this will help me get my Chinese back on track.
And this time it takes on new meaning. My friend and Kung Fu teacher Tang Wei Zhong grew up in Shang Hai during the cultural revolution. He introduced me to a friend of his name Wen Mei Yu, who is now 70 and went through a lot during the era. I now get to hear their stories to go along with the book.

Public Bathroom Tip #1

Carry some Post-It Notes with you when using public bathrooms here in the states.
If you have ever had one of those automatic flushing toilettes incessantly flush on you while you try to sit down and ever time you flinch, these will come in handy.
Here's what you do... Before preparing the toilette with the paper ring of safety, cover the light sensor with a post-it note. This will save you a lot of frustration. No more watching 3 paper covers flush away before you can sit. No more worry about flushing before you get up.
Next time: Alcohol wipes or tissue and hand sanitizer. Keeping it clean.
Cheers.