According to a report in today’s Guardian, the corpse of a homeless man lay rotting on a Japanese city street for two months:
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For two months, the body of an elderly man was ignored by passersby as it lay rotting on a street corner in Osaka, a short walk from a department store and a big railway station.
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“I guess the place where the body was found is kind of a blind spot for passersby,” a spokesman for Hankyu department store, Masaaki Takahashi, told Kyodo news agency. “We didn’t receive any inquiries or comments from our customers. There was no big stir among our employees either.”
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My first reaction to reading this piece was the typical ‘How shocking! People there are so ignorant!’ response. But after having a good think about it, it’s surprising that something similar hasn’t yet happened here. The way public attitudes are regressing, it’s only a matter of time.