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Vol.51
Crossing the Line |
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April 19,2019 |
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In Japan, a temple chief priest
had taught letters and
arithmetics to general people in
each region until the Warring
States period. This is the
origin of Terakoya, a private
elementary school in the Edo
period. That is why monks at
that time were highly respected
and even treated special in the
samurai society.
When
Japan entered the Meiji period,
new occupations were established
as roles in the country's
system, such as teachers, police
officers, and professional
soldiers, followed by judges,
prosecutors, and lawyers, and
started earning some respect for
having the moral
responsibilities of society.
However, what is
happening to the Japanese
society now? It is true that
today's information-oriented
system helps reveal buried
scandals, but so many crimes,
such as fraud, assault, tax
evasion, and disgraceful
offense, committed by these
professionals have recently made
headlines across the country.
One of them is a
murder done by a police officer
a few years ago. Unlike other
murder cases by a police officer
or due to a love-hate
relationship, this was
unbelievable because he entered
a house that he once visited for
investigation and killed a man
living there just to get money
to play with. In another crime,
a junior high school teacher in
Tokyo was arrested for
soliciting high school girls in
an escort service.
Both
stories gave me an impression
that "an ordinary person crossed
the line."
Having
earthly desires, everyone has a
possibility to commit a crime
but normally refrains from
actually doing it. I think that
respectful professionals
including Buddhist monks never
do a crime because of their
"pride" and "conscience."
These two crimes may
be telling us that there is an
urgent need to establish an
educational and work environment
where each person can proudly
follow the morals of society.
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