Japan Magazine In Beheading Flak

The arrest of a 14-year-old boy on charges of strangling and beheading a neighbor has set off a round of soul-searching in Japan, and Wednesday the case provoked a furor over journalistic ethics after a weekly magazine published the boy’s photo.

The boy is accused of the most gruesome murder in memory in Japan, one that has shaken the nation. But Japan is also enormously protective of the rights of children to privacy, even when they are accused of horrific crimes, and so the magazine’s action set off a firestorm and a new episode of national soul-searching.

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto denounced the magazine, Focus, and the government said it had begun an investigation into the affair.