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This is, if I may insert my view here, a facile read on the social structure of Japan. Violence of any sort here (outside, say, some type of budo or martial art) is simply not tolerated. Even police are trained to subdue potentially violent citizens with a minimum of physical contact. There are no samurai-type authority figures stalking the streets, and no one is alive who would have witnessed anything like what is described here.
I would suggest the relative peacefulness of Japan is a two-edged sword (and thus quite unlike the single-edged katana, if we're extending the metaphor.) You are not to be violent even when provoked, and there are very specific limits within the law when violence is acceptable (i.e. you must be in imminent physical danger, unable to flee, etc.)
Last year I assured a good friend of mine from the US who was visiting that Japan was pretty clean and that there was nearly never public violence. The first afternoon we walked out I saw a used condom in the street, and a few nights later in town a guy grabbed another dude by his shirt collar and threatened him. (Threatening guy was the usual punk, guy being threatened was a tout who had approached what I assume was punk's girlfriend, who was wearing what looked like a very frilly maid outfit with big clompy shoes.)
As for reasons for Japanese peacefulness I'd say a lot is, indeed, homogeneity of upbringing and socialization, on which I could write volumes. But won't.
I wish people would. I find Japan and Japanese culture fascinating.
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