“Everyone’s building walls and hiring guards. But in Japan, you can walk into a park at midnight and sit on a bench and nothing will happen to you. You’re completely safe, day or night. You can go anywhere. You won’t be robbed or beaten or killed. You’re not always looking behind you, not always worrying. You don’t need walls and bodyguards. Your safety is the safety of the whole society. You’re free. It’s a wonderful feeling. “

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Compared to the Japanese, we [Americans] are incompetent. In Japan, every criminal gets caught. For major crimes, convictions run ninety-nine percent. So any criminal in Japan knows from the outset he is going to get caught. But here, the conviction rate is more like seventeen percent. Not even one in five. So a criminal in the States knows he probably isn’t going to get caught – and if he’s caught, he won’t be convicted, thanks to all his legal safeguards.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“I feel … that I would like to wallow in crime this evening.”

Agatha Christie, The Companion