School murder shatters Japan's safe image

By CNN's Rose Tang

TOKYO, Japan -- The fatal stabbing of at least eight children in an Osaka elementary school has shattered the myth of Japan as a violence-free culture and highlighted increasing social problems, analysts say.

"For a long time, we had this myth about Japan being a safe place. For the past several years, this myth has been shaken up," says Yuko Kawanishi, a sociologist specializing in mental health at the Temple University in Tokyo.

"And with this case, the safety myth was totally shattered."

Kawanishi says cases such as the latest stabbing murders had for a long time been "unthinkable" in Japan.

Reluctant to link the school murder directly with general social problems in Japan, Kawanishi tells CNN that it might have more to do with abuse of prescribed drugs.

"Obviously this man has been under psychiatric care…He is a heavy drug user," she said from Tokyo.

Lacking mental health care

Kawanishi says Japanese doctors have "a tendency to prescribe drugs rather than provide counseling" because insurance policies don't cover counseling services.

However this murder case, like previous killings involving teenagers and children in recent years, happened against a backdrop of increasing incidents of depression in Japan, she says.

"There's a lot of depression and insecurity around, because the Japanese society has been changing rapidly," Kawanishi said.

She says there have been rising depression and suicide rates among young and middle-aged people who have lost their jobs because of a long recession, and because of a break-up of traditional family structure and kinship.