Readers in Council,
The Japan Times,
5-4, Shibaura 4-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
In my opinion the February 21st story “Shark left in Yoyogi has cops fishing for motive” about the discovery of an illegally dumped shark carcass in central Tokyo takes the bait as the top domestic news story of 2012. While domestic political news is a tempting lure, it’s a predictable catch. But this shark tale just kind of snuck up on me and grabbed my attention when I least expected. There was something fishy about it from the very start but I couldn’t resist it. It seemed the the more I tried to shake it off the more tenaciously it attacked my imagination. The shocking revelation that the perpetrator was never hooked but apparently just swam away scott free has gnawed at me repeatedly with a crushing persistence. I couldn’t beat off the fascination with the news, and the horror of a delinquent shark dumper has stalked me throughout the seasons. Since then I’ve been afraid to go into the water. What’s next? Human carcasses on the streets? Oh, wait, that’s already happened.
Tokyo police need not worry too much about the shark dumper’s motive. I’m just a landlubber in these things but I can tell them the motive: some guy wanted to get rid of the fish.