collect much, recently?

YOKOHAMA — Kanagawa prefectural police on Wednesday re-arrested a 46-year-old man on charges of stealing women's underwear, local media reported Thursday. The man, identified as Kazuo Miyake, was arrested earlier this month for trespassing. When police searched his home in Kanazawa Ward, they confiscated about 2,500 items of women's underwear.

"I have never been able to speak to women, so collecting their underwear gave me pleasure," Miyake was quoted as saying. Police said that he had placed the panties underneath his futon and was sleeping on them. Miyake has admitted to stealing underwear for the past 10 years, police said. He was apprehended while he was going through the washing machine in an apartment near his home late at night on Aug 1, police said.

This is the kind of guy who gives a bad rap to all the normal guys in Japan. I would say the foreign media definitely plays up such a headline as again another display of 'weird Japan.' What a pity. Before I came to Japan I must admit, I did not see Japanese men in the most positive light. After my first year, I came to realize that men here are virtually the same as those everywhere - there are nice guys, jerks, goody two-shoes, perverts, chauvanists, pushovers, gentlemen... I mean, could Asians very well judge Americans based on the recently arrested pedophile Karr?