By Eric Talmadge Associated Press Writer Tuesday, August 26, 1997; 4:01 p.m. EDT

TOKYO (AP) -- A woman is arrested after her husband's dismembered corpse is found rotting in their bathtub. A teen-age couple is caught trying to rob a bank. A man confesses to randomly assaulting dozens of young women with stones, beer bottles, metal pipes.

And that was just last week.

Japan has an international reputation for safe streets, but this summer has been gruesome -- and authorities fear the rise in violence is more than just a seasonal fluke.

Throughout the summer, headlines have chilled Japanese because of the frequency of the crimes and the cold-bloodedness displayed by some criminals.

In the robbery department, Japan has seen two of its biggest armored car heists during the past month. In one, robbers got away with $900,000. No arrests have been made.

As for murders, Japan was shocked in June at the arrest of a 14-year-old Kobe boy suspected of killing two younger children; in July by the capture of two men in their 20s for the grisly murders of two young girls; and, this month, by the Bathtub Killing, so named because that is where most of the victim's body was found.

Assaults also have been well represented. Police arrested a 20-year-old man this month for randomly assaulting dozens of young women in Tokyo. Attacks that may be copy-cat crimes continue. Assaults on homeless people in Tokyo have risen significantly, police say.

Japanese long have taken a special pride in crime rates that are among the lowest of the industrialized nations. That sense of security is beginning to erode, however.

``Every day we see hateful murders, crimes against small children and women,'' read one typically outraged letter recently to the editor of a major newspaper. ``I don't think it will be so long until the Japanese islands are awash in crime.''

The recurring involvement of children -- as victims and perpetrators -- frequently has been noted by commentators as a particularly unnerving aspect of the current rise in crime.

In the most disturbing case so far, the Kobe murders, police arrested the 14-year-old for allegedly murdering an 11-year-old neighbor and displaying the decapitated head outside a school gate.

The boy also is suspected of bludgeoning a 10-year-old girl to death and stabbing another girl in March. He is in custody and a family court has jurisdiction over his case.

In a second upsetting occurence, a 17-year-old female honor student in Osaka stamped and trampled her neighbor's toddler to death for making too much noise while playing just outside her window.

The brutality of these murders resulted in widespread calls for tougher punishments of criminals who are still in their teens.

So far, the Justice Ministry has said high emotions over a two isolated incidents aren't a good reason to make major changes in the criminal system. Still, officials acknowledge that young offenders, especially violent ones, are becoming an increasingly difficult problem.

Summer crime statistics are not yet compiled, but police earlier this month reported that violent crimes committed by juveniles through the first half of the year had jumped by nearly 60 percent.

Juvenile crime in general was up 21 percent. The 69,646 minors arrested accounted for nearly half of all arrests in Japan through June.

Attacks on middle-aged or older men were increasing rapidly, as were drug-related crimes, the report said. It urged increased cooperation between schools, parents and police.

In the meantime, a growing number of Japanese are buying up personal safety devices, including mace sprayers disguised as lipstick cases and gadgets for children to send out an ear-splitting distress call with the pull of a pin.

``The Japanese used to think security was like water -- that it could be taken for granted,'' said Shoichiro Takahashi, whose Toa Security Co. markets such goods nationwide. ``With all the crime these days, they are beginning to have some serious doubts.''

© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press