The book "Repeat Offender with Disabilities." Just reading a single chapter was intense. It's about the family of Makoto Yamaguchi, the perpetrator of the Lesser Panda incident. His father has an intellectual disability. However, because it was mild, it wasn't officially noticed until Makoto was arrested, only being diagnosed when the father was around 60. Naturally, there was no insurance or welfare assistance whatsoever. His father spent all his time playing pachinko and subjected the children to horrendous abuse. His mother died of illness while the children were still young. Makoto had a more severe intellectual disability than his father. After graduating from junior high school, he went to a special-needs school, but he was severely bullied there. At subsequent jobs, all his front teeth were knocked out, after which he drifted around living almost like a homeless person. Even when brought back home, he hated his father so much that he would immediately run away again. He had already committed many minor crimes like theft prior to that, but when caught by the police, he wouldn't run away at all. He actually liked the police more than his father. When asked why he pointed a knife at the victim, he answered in all seriousness, "I wanted to become friends." Normal people cannot understand this, but it genuinely seemed to be his true feeling, as he would answer nothing else. (Though news reports stated things like "he confessed he wanted to make her his own," he never actually said that.) Basically, he couldn't hold a normal conversation with people, so he could hardly say anything that would be advantageous to himself.
And then there was his younger sister, whose situation was unbelievable. She seemed to be the only one without an intellectual disability. Ever since their mother died, she took on the role of a mother, looking after her intellectually disabled father and older brother. Naturally, she couldn't afford to go to high school due to financial reasons, and after graduating from junior high, she worked constantly to support the family. The excessive strain caused her to develop cancer. Even then, she kept working. Because none of the family members even knew about public welfare services, they received zero help from the local government. It was only after Makoto was arrested that this situation came to light. Private welfare workers came to help the sister, who was nearing the end of her life. Wanting to "at least let her experience some joy at the very end," they took her to Tokyo Disneyland and various other places, fully equipped with a wheelchair and IV drips. The sister worried deeply about whether this happiness was built upon the sacrifice of the victim, but after living a normal life for about a year, she passed away. I know you shouldn't defend a murderer, but how is anyone supposed to survive in an environment like that?
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