I just got through pointing out the flawed reasoning in two Yomiuri articles, and now on their web site I find a third. The article caught my attention because of the title: “Tokyo traffic fatalities plunge to 50-year low.” Either that’s a horrid pun, or a very badly considered title.

In the article, the following thesis is presented: The low traffic death toll was attributed “to a crackdown on bag-snatchers riding two-wheeled vehicles.”

Huh?

It gets better: they said that two-wheeled vehicles are responsible for 30% of traffic deaths in Tokyo, which is more than the national average of 20%. However, the article fails to show that any traffic deaths were caused by these snatchers, so we can only assume that bag-snatchers on scooters somehow get into traffic accidents. In turn, we have to believe that if the police crack down on them, the death toll gets lower. (Which goes contrary to the general policy the police have for not stopping noisy bosozoku bike gangs, namely that they flee and cause accidents.)

But the article then states that bag-snatchers “have struck an average of almost 20 times a day this year, much more than the average 15 times a day they attacked last year.”

Huh?

Stopping bag snatchers was supposed to bring down the death toll, but snatchings are up? How does that account for the lower death toll? Further, the article says that part of the crackdown involved “questioning all people riding two-wheeled vehicles within a three-kilometer radius of the scene of a bag-snatching.” This has got to be the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard of. A scooter can go 3 kilometers in 6 minutes even in slow traffic. Are we to believe that the police can stop and question all of the hundreds of two-wheeled vehicle riders in an area 6 kilometers across within six minutes of the crime? That’s quite a feat! Frankly, I would be astounded if the Japanese police could get interested in a crime in six minutes, given their reputation for not jumping into action, rather simply telling victims that nothing can be done about it.

What we have here is an extremely badly written article based on an unbelievably faulty premise. Pretty standard for the Yomiuri.