re: Violent video games and desensitization

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So why in a country like Japan that, shares our appetite for violent videogames and media,do we not see these type of massacres?

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Could be a number of factors. Certain races have a higher rate of cancer.

But yes... they have had violence.

LINK

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The surge in youth violence has sparked calls for a reassessment of the increasingly violent and sexually charged youth culture in Japan, now exported worldwide through animation, comic strips and video games.
The young killer in Sasebo, whose name is being withheld under Japanese law, was an avid fan of "Battle Royale," a popular teen movie turned Internet game in which students kill one another through blood sport. Although the girl is still undergoing psychological evaluation, she is believed to have been set off by a seemingly minor offense: The victim, one of the girl's closest friends, once called her "overweight" and "prissy" on a Web site.

Japan has experienced a rising tide of serious youth crimes, including arson, assault, rape, manslaughter and premeditated murder.
Incidents of violence on school grounds have increased fivefold in Japan

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2001- At 10:15 that morning, 37-year-old former janitor Mamoru Takuma entered the school armed with a kitchen knife and began stabbing numerous school children and teachers. He killed eight children, mostly between the ages of seven and eight, and seriously wounded thirteen other children and two teachers.

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