Let me begin with a parable.

A high school teacher, drunk, loses his temper and lays hands on a student. The teacher is arrested at the scene.

At a news conference later held by the teacher to explain what had happened, “a letter from the student” is read aloud on his behalf. In it, the student says the two have since made up and, strangely, even apologizes for the matter having been reported.

Would this not strike us as odd? The student who was subjected to violence being made to serve as a shield for the teacher who used it?

Now, imagine that the story is not about a teacher, but about a father.

The case of Shinnosuke Abe, who recently resigned as manager of the Yomiuri Giants professional........

© The Asahi Shimbun