Escalator to Nowhere.

Let me try to explain to those of you out there who don't have first-hand experience of Japan and the Japanese mind:

I'm watching the news right now (in English and Japanese at the same time - I know..kinna gives me a headache, but I'm in a hurry to learn the language).
A few days ago a guy stabbed a lot of people in Akihabara with a knife (He actually had several knives, one of which happened to be a stilleto).
Now the Japanese government is thinking about banning stilletos.
What about the other knives？ Well, it would be stupid to ban ALL knives, so let's just ban the one knife that was different. Let's not consider the fact that the crime could have been comitted with ANY large, sharp knife just as effectively.

This is actually quite the fitting analogy for the Japanese way of thinking.

About a month ago an unsupervised child stuck a finger into an escalator and lost it.
For DAYS afterwards they discussed it on TV - even sending reporters out with calipers to various malls to randomly check the size of kids' fingers and compare them to nearby escalators.
Oh, how dangerous those escalators be..

Of course the problem couldn't be the fact that parents here let their kids run all over the place on account of the fact that Japan is a relatively safe place:
On a recent camping trip to a somewhat raging river I looked on as some 6 year olds played King of the Mountain on a large boulder that waspartly in the river next to some rapids.

Where were their parents？
About 40 meters away under a tent.

What if a child fell in and was swept away in the raging waters？

My guess would be:

a) Construct guardrails along all major watercourses in Japan.

b) Ban ALL chhldren from Japan's rivers.

c) Ban ALL Japan's rivers.

Thank you for riding the escalator to nowhere.