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Domestic violence consultations in Japan a record 82,643 in 2020

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as people spent more time at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Lift the stupid SOE, and speed up the vaccine roll out so that people can go back to their normal lives.

Then you will see the DV cases will drastically drop.

-16 ( +4 / -20 )

Of the alleged stalking victims, 87.6 percent were women.

Men made up 80.7 percent of alleged stalkers. 

So 7 percent of the alleged stalkers of women were actually other women.

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

We’re aware fo the urgent need for attention to this critical issue. This is the second “Domestic violence cases in Japan hit record high in FY2020’ since last published here Jan. 13. So, like you finally did with the suicide articles, please amend these stories with a free-dial, ‘National DV Consultation Helpline’ telephone number and website. It’s an ethical and common practice by all forms of media across the world.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The numbers are probably double if not more than are being reported here.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

One thing that's always puzzled me about Japan is the number of people I see just sitting in their cars at various carparks (convenience stores, electronics, furniture...). There have been any number of times when I've parked my car, noticed someone chilling out in their car, gone inside for 20~30 minutes, and they are still there when I come back out.

I give these folks credit, the real problem is the one's who do the same thing while driving!

I would bet that 99.99% are harmless, just playing their "Winning Eleven" or some other game, but more than likely watching some You Tube video!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Back on topic please.

Imagine that. Salarymen become violent when their job forces them to stay home and actually interact with their families.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

It's interesting to see that of the weekly, "wife kills husband/husband kills wife" news stories that none of them reached out for help.

There were no murder cases, but 110 cases of attempted murder, the data showed.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

none of them reached out for help.

Where did you find that information?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Asiaman7,

Statistics are the devil's playground.

80% of the stalkers were men. That means 20% were women (not 7%)

87% of those stalked were women. That means 13% of those stalked were men.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

"The numbers are probably double if not more than are being reported here."

and about 4x in the west if every case was reported in the west.

-12 ( +0 / -12 )

Maybe it could be prevented or at least reduced, if police acted quickly when called. Right now, in most cases they arrive, try talk some sense into them and leave. I was a witness to this many years ago. I couldn't believe my eyes after the police was about to leave. When telling them that such situation happens very often and can escalate, they said they can't do anything because the poor lady didn't admit her abusive boyfriend doing anything to her. Just the fact them implying that she needs to admit to that was breathtaking.

We don't have anyting like a domestic exclusion order here. We have rules, posters in the subway, mascots but when violence happens, the police are pretty useless.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

For comparison sake:

A New Covid-19 Crisis: Domestic Abuse Rises Worldwide

Movement restrictions aimed to stop the spread of the coronavirus may be making violence in homes more frequent, more severe and more dangerous.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html

Think! Don't bash but think!

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

@ borschtToday  

Asiaman7,

Statistics are the devil's playground.

80% of the stalkers were men. That means 20% were women (not 7%)

87% of those stalked were women. That means 13% of those stalked were men.

If we had 100 stalkers (80 men, 20 women), and we know that 87 of the 100 victims were women, then at the very least, seven of those women victims would have been stalked by a woman. (As low as 7, as high as 13.)

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

People need to just talk with each other. Get home, talk about your day, have a drink with your partner, talk about silly stuff, laugh and just be happy together! That's what we do!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Again, “Men made up 80.7 percent of alleged stalkers.” You only speculate of the remaining 19.3%.

@6:48a & 9:50am The authors did not clarify if the study even gave any further details on any ‘proclivity’ You may be trying to imply, possibly as an attempt to start a debate here on ‘gender politics’.

The subject of the article “Domestic violence” usually refers to “*violent or aggressive behaviour within a home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner.** Its presumed ‘stalking’ was included because it also may involve ‘violence by ‘known’ persons on others persons ‘known’ to the assailant*’.

Some assailants were not ‘known’ by the victims so, “Cases involving strangers made up 7.8 percent” was also delineated from the study.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Asiaman7Today 09:50 am JST

If we had 100 stalkers (80 men, 20 women), and we know that 87 of the 100 victims were women, then at the very least, seven of those women victims would have been stalked by a woman. (As low as 7, as high as 13.)

Yes, there are cases of women stalking women. And guess what? The police believe them even less, becasue they can't imagine that a woman would stalk a woman. But it happens, and more often than anyone may think.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Outlaw alcohol and legalize weed--that'll lower the number.

If you think the main cause of domestic violence is "alcohol", you really to read a book or two.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

@RiskyMosaic  

seven of those women victims would have been stalked by a woman

Does it matter?

Very good point. Does the gender of the stalker and stalked really matter? In the end, the stalker is emotionally disturbed and in need of serious counseling, and the stalked has been seriously victimized.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Equally important, *what’s neglected from the article is the number of *‘domestic assaults on children’?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/factsheets/fs_intimate.pdf

There is of course a link between alcohol and violence in general (domestic or otherwise), but again, it's far from being the main cause of domestic violence, and most of all, thinking that people who smoke weed don't beat their spouses is simply inane.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Anyone know if any articles since “NPA refers record number of child abuse victims to consultation centers in 2012 - Mar. 9, 2013 ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

and about 4x in the west if every case was reported in the west.

And what difference does the "west" make when this is about Japan? Oh right, just stirring the pot here!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Agreed @Jsapc. Relevant information to consider.

Many of the other comments are detours from this Domestic Violence issue in Japan with their insinuations of ‘proclivity for a physical attraction’; ‘compare Japan to the West’; ‘gender debate’, ‘legalization of marijuana’. These are just tangents and again, all *speculation created because of the overall lack of additional data provided.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Regarding DV victims, including children, the latest found here is

Oct. 6, ‘20: “Mothers of child abuse victims often isolated: gov't panel’ and,

Feb. 7, ‘20: “Record 1,957 child abuse cases investigated by police in 2019”.

Unfortunately, both articles are amended with “...expired, and ...no longer available.”

To aid DV victims and children searching this site for information, perhaps, as a PS gesture, list a ‘free-dial’, ‘National DV Consultation Helpline’ telephone number and website in their discontinued spaces?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Corona is a poor excuse but it seems it is wildly (worldwide) getting an excuse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Where did you find that information?

The article.

A record 5,183 domestic violence cases among the 8,778 investigated involved assault, followed by 2,626 cases of bodily harm. There were no murder cases, but 110 cases of attempted murder, the data showed.

The police investigated 8778 cases of the 80,000 odd reports. Of those 0 resulted in murders. But we still read weekly about spousal murder.

The point I'm making is that the cases police choose to investigate are either too few or poorly picked. Or they never sought help from the police.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Resolved! @Kiwikid. Agreed - many victims are ashamed to admit family problems or ashamed to seek outside counseling because of their perceived social dictates in this society.

You found the numbers chosen to be investigated are questionable in relation to the unspecified, yet numerous ‘intra-family murders in the news weekly.

This accounts for all the ‘downvotes’ and the ‘ready-to-pounce’ attempts to call your comments a form of ‘victim shaming’. - Not the case at all.

Your comments are an indictment of ‘police discretion’ in which cases to more thoroughly follow up. - Agreed.(+)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yes, @Albert 12:59p. A prominent factor but, no excuse. On this media site we could only find- “*School closures and office workers who are working remotely have led to an increase in domestic abuse, *experts say” but this site provides no stats or details to support this additional statement. It was amended to a ‘quote of the day” Apr 4, ‘20 The original quote, (in relation to Today’s topic), was:

“*Child abuse and domestic violence occur in the same household in many cases.** by Chisato Kitanaka of Tokyo-based npo “All Japan Women’s Shelter Network. At the time, @Strangerland* questioned how the first caption above was deemed relative and amended to the Women’s Shelter quote.

On topic, in their search to find ‘life-saving’ information, DV victims and children may be searching this JT site.

At the very least, the agency listed above, if it still has funding to exist, would greatly benefit from having their contact info listed, since her quotas was used as a ‘tie-in’ to the pandemic and remote work issues. 

Perhaps they would also benefit in the way of donations, as a result of JT’s possible addendums to that article?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@snowymountainhell

The article you are looking for are for Kyodo news :

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/02/df895ffbda71-record-1957-child-abuse-cases-probed-by-police-in-2019.html

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/10/33cea4a07dfb-mothers-of-child-abuse-victims-often-isolated-japan-govt-panel.html

They do not give link to who can help, but there is a government one :

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/new-japanese-domestic-abuse-hotline-is-available-in-multiple-languages-including-english-042220

And TELL also :

https://telljp.com/lifeline/tell-chat/homepage/resources/domestic-violence-2/

It is the same that for the suicide, so JT could use it. And they list several other options.

So for @moderator, I guess at least this one should be included :

https://soudanplus.jp/en/index.html

I guess for other language it is only through chat.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Agreed @RickySanchez. - Many persons engaged in the dialogue on this site will ‘take up the flag’ and ‘pounce on’ wording, or what they suspect are deviations from ‘their own agendas regarding gender, race, politics, etc’. but few will stick around to confront and ‘champion’ issues regarding family and children, like ‘Domestic Violence’. - Perhaps, it’s too much adult responsibility or, they have had little to no extensive life and social experiences.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Unbelievable @P.Smith. Some of the ‘veteran’ commenters (as late as yesterday), chastise us and remind us we are ‘merely guests in this country and should never question the host’ country’s cultural mores.

Regardless of the country or culture, ‘intrafamily violence’ is often a product of poverty and is more prevalent than depicted in media ‘before the big upcoming event’. Studies show that such violence increases the likelihood that a child will encounter neglect, bullying, social exclusion, injustice, racism, and gender inequality, then, perpetrate violence on others later in life.

Great work, @Flute. It didn’t take long to do ‘a little extra’ research, right? Hopefully, the information you’ve provided can be used as reference in future articles to help families escape these ‘cycles of domestic violence’.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Outlaw alcohol and legalize weed--that'll lower the number.

Organic opium tea, classical music and board games can relive stress and bring couples closer together.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Here’s the latest information: “Child abuse cases across Japan top 100,000 for first time”.

The most recent info: “NPA data released Feb. 4, 2021 shows that police notified child consultation centers of suspected child abuse involving a total of 106,960 youngsters under 18 years old is up 8.9 percent, 8,738 from the previous year. - Source: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14200517 - from Today, Mar 5, 2021.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

P. SmithToday 03:18 pm JST

Those people are too sensitive and tend to think any criticism means you hate Japan, which is a failure in logic.

Very true - you can critisize something without hating it.

It, meaning Japan. Ahem. Or anything else.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

girl_in_tokyoToday 04:21 pm JST

P. SmithToday 03:18 pm JST

Those people are too sensitive and tend to think any criticism means you hate Japan, which is a failure in logic.

Very true - you can critisize something without hating it.

It, meaning Japan. Ahem. Or anything else.

Exactly. Most Japanese people still think that criticism means hating Japan. And if you love something, you can't criticise. They can't grasp the idea of criticising without love or hate aspect.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Let this sink in:

the highest since a law against spousal violence took effect in 2001

There was no law against spousal violence until 2001.

I think it was covered by general laws against violence. It seems reasonable to ask why we need special laws for spousal violence? There are reasons: it can be difficult to secure a conviction when there are no witnesses and many wives are unwilling to lodge a complaint. My understanding is that the 2001 law doesn't specifically change charges of violence but it gives the courts powers to force husbands to stay away from wives where there is a suspicion of violence. I don't know what the equivalent laws are in my own country, but long ago a social worker friend told me that the police, in the absence of a formal complaint, would sometimes drive the husband about five miles out of town and let him walk home giving a couple of hours of respite to the wife.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Domestic violence consultations in Japan a record

What do you expect if you lock people in their homes and destroy small businesses?

Also expect a big rise in health problems (other than the Corona that everyone is fixated on).

Political hubris comes home to roost.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

What is the definition of domestic violence (DV) and how many claims of DV turned out not to be true? My Japanese spouse and I separated almost a year ago. As I was packing my bags to leave, she asked where I was going and I wouldn't tell her. She said that not telling her was DV. I never touched her or even raised my voice, but she made a DV claim against me. I even had a witness there watching me pack my bags to make sure that she didn't get out of hand because she had several times before.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Mike DashlerToday 05:32 am JST

What is the definition of domestic violence (DV) and how many claims of DV turned out not to be true? My Japanese spouse and I separated almost a year ago. As I was packing my bags to leave, she asked where I was going and I wouldn't tell her. She said that not telling her was DV. I never touched her or even raised my voice, but she made a DV claim against me. I even had a witness there watching me pack my bags to make sure that she didn't get out of hand because she had several times before.

I know two women whose husbands abused them and their children. Now those men are living their lives freely, while their ex-wives are living in shelters and are unable to move about freely, can't work, can't leave Japan, have no money or savings, and have to accept being on welfare. There is literally no escape for them due to the bureaucracy involved in reporting DV. And again - no punishment at all was meted out to their husbands. They are walking about, free to date and to continue abusing women with impunity.

Women don't generally lie about the abuse they suffer at the hands of men. Just becasue it happened to you personally shouldn't lead you to assuming all women are exactly the same as your wife.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

226 couples every day had seriously troubled times in 2020 . The stats, 75.9% male aggressor, would suggest the wisdom of the housewife's kotowaza "Genki de rusu ga ii". Trouble in a family, where emotions are so intertwined and, sometimes, terminally conflicted, is one of the saddest things to see in the people around us. And our solutions for this are usually to take an abusive personality and abuse it further (prison) and tell ourselves it's 'rehabilitation' and we've done all we could. It is in fact a social cancer that destroys families and leaves damaged children as detritus in its wake, and a virulent disease which 'society' chooses to largely ignore or lay blame on the abusers head when they are as much of a victim of themselves as their target. We don't know the cure for this disease yet and we don't seem to be trying greatly to find one. It's a 'family disease' and, since the family is the root of any extant Human society, we have a disease that eats at the very foundations of our social contract and inflicts damage on many children who then become adults and... Someday, maybe, if we decide to really care...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Appreciate your candor @MikeDashler. Please read comments above @Mar 5 10:33a for a very, general definition of ‘Domestic Violence’.

If your questioning your possible past actions/inactions, Please consider that, not just physical abuse, but ‘psychological behaviors’ can be abusive. Aggressive behavior like threats and intimidation; and passive behavior, like emotional ‘neglect’ or ‘gaslighting’ can be abusive. They can be considered forms of abuse IF engaged in prior to departure and, ‘after separation’ your separation IF she was financially dependent on you and not left a means for survival.

Just exiting quietly (for reasons ‘unstated’) with a witness, sounds like it may have been the best course of action to avoid any chance of further altercation. As for her followup and accusations, we don’t know if it’s ‘founded or unfounded’. - Best wishes to all involved for ‘healthy’ resolution.

As for as the above @7:09a ‘talking down to’ you; as we addressed early on @Mar 5 11:34a, anticipating the predicatable ‘derailing to come, ‘take heart’: “Many commenters are just ‘rolling around’ various sections to engage someone, anyone in a ‘debate’, not as a sincere, virtuous cause, but to satisfy some possible, narcissistic ideal of ‘self-righteousness’. These are just tangents that detract from the real issue here:

Domestic Violence’ toward ANY family member.

The weakest component in all of this oversight is welfare of children, with ‘Child abuse cases across Japan top 100,000 for first time” - “NPA data released Feb. 4, 2021 shows that suspected child abuse is up 8.9 percent, 8,738 from the previous year. - Source: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14200517 - from Mar 5, 2021.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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