Crimes in Japan rise in 2022 for 1st time in 20 years

Poverty breeds excess crime, simple as.

Perhaps police are now doing their job rather than crimes actually increasing.

The number of crimes recorded in Japan in 2022 rose for the first time in 20 years, apparently due in part to an increase in street crime as COVID-19 restrictions eased, police data showed Thursday.

Corporate and bureaucratic crime remain as profitable and unpunished as ever, while crimes of desperation by the public rise....alternate headline.

I still believe the number is actually higher, as many times reports are not taken, and charges not filed, as either an apology and or restitution is paid.

Not really surprising. A few years of SOEs decreasing human interaction with an already socially inept and introverted public is likely to have immediate negative results. I just wonder if the negative social aspects of the pandemic are going to be long lasting or temporary.

subtract the elderly convenience store shoplifters, and I'll bet the crime statistics are flat.

Not a great increase but some serious issues. Japan is still a safe country to live in when compared with other G7 countries.

Japan has a low crime reportage rate, especially for sexual assault and murder

What do you mean by low crime reportage rate for murders ?

Not declared to the police ?

I would be surprised by that

Women are safer in Japan than in any G7 country.

Rape and sexual assaults are unreported in all countries because women fear what they have to face when they do report it. How much underreporting?

Official statistics never represent the reality. A friend was raped and police refused to listen saying "well you might invited him"

Remember in Osaka when police confessed not counting complaints as it was ordered by officials ?

But Japan is still far compared to western countries.

The Japanese Police have been busy. I have not seen any in the local Koban for a few months now.

Like most statistics in Japan, crimes are recorded (or not recorded at all) in very different ways from those you might find in Western nations, so take this with a massive grain of salt.

And of course you can prove the above statement.

Perhaps police are now doing their job rather than crimes actually increasing.

Or perhaps the pandemic had something to do with increase.

*Crime rates in Japan are many times higher than what the statistics tell you (for example, one Japanese researcher believes that 90% of suicides are, in fact, murders), and this could be just an increase in reporting anyway, which is good.*

What a foolish researcher. If 90% of suicides are murders, the number of suicides in Japan would be 2,000. We would see the lowest suicide rate in the world.

Japan has the worlds best rate for convictions. The police do a good job of getting evidence so that the guilty face justice for their crimes.

"Not a great increase but some serious issues. Japan is still a safe country to live in when compared with other G7 countries."

I am curious how safe Japan is compared to South Korea, Mainland China and Taiwan. Maybe Japan can learn from those other Far East countries especially Taiwan in terms of trying to get rid of crimes such as Gender related Crimes, random assaults, etc.

nondualism

the posts I have read from you are based on assumptions and speculations.

I do agree that all crime in all countries is underreported. Especially the crimes of rape and sexual assault because of the way the victims are treated by the authorities and courts.

I translate many documents that have involved accusations of sexual assaults for the purpose of people wanting American visas. Even when the charges are dropped or someone is found not guilty, the fallout does not end there.

In the UK I worked in a lab that did forensic testing including rape.

I personally have several foreign female friends who have been raped. One, an Italian was raped five times.

If you have data to back up your actual claims I would be happy to see it.

Companies that analysis data and provide stats say differently.

In all my time here, I have never been a witness to any crime. That didn't happen when I was living in the UK and other European countries.

nondualism

for my first 20 years here, every year I read the annual police report on crime and many other documents. I also wrote many articles on it, especially from a foreigner's perspective.

It has extensively been discussed on this forum and many others.

Plenty of research has been done on these areas.

Good, you can start there by posting some links.

Do you have no archive?

There were THREE murders by Vietnamese import workers in 2022.

These murders would not have happened in Japan if those who committed them were still in their home country. Those crimes and others obviously add to the crimes in Japan.

Mr Kipling

there are about 5,000 foreigners in prisons for a variety of crimes including drug smuggling.

So what kind of test should be made on foreigners that could show their criminal intent before being allowed in?

Should Japan just ban all foreigners? Easy solution.

Heinous crimes, including murder, were up 8.1 percent to 9,536 cases.

Mr KiplingToday  11:59 am JST

There were THREE murders by Vietnamese import workers in 2022.

These murders would not have happened in Japan if those who committed them were still in their home country. Those crimes and others obviously add to the crimes in Japan.

Not that i condone it, but 3 as apposed to 9,533 is a drop in the river. All murders would not have happened in Japan if those who committed them were to think rationally and just.......not follow through with their plan to harm someone. Where someone is from has nothing to do with murders. It is what it is! It happens everywhere you go.

Most of women don't report their assault, especially in the work environment. I was walking with my friend and we passed thru a group of drunk guys, one tried to hug me and I got his arm and took him away, and yelled at him. Now, I'm more aware and ready to punch or kick any that comes closer. I’m ready to punch. Japanese women are used to not react and this need to change. Aggression and violence is not the solution but some perverts needs to get a kick in their balls. Summer time I can’t even wear a tighter top because they keep staring at my breasts and some even think loud. Those perverts needs to get a lesson.

nondualism

so you have no links to actual studies or reports.

You base your assumptions on personal experience rather than data. My spouse has never been assaulted so should I take that and believe there are zero sex assaults.

No, that would be stupid.

I don’t deny there is crime and I don't deny there are rapes and sexual assaults. I don’t deny many go unreported because of the treatment of the victims.

Without some sort of data, I don’t accept 90% of sex crimes go unreported. There are many on JT.

Why do you have no archives?

Poverty breeds excess crime, simple as.

No it does not. Both poverty and crime are caused by certain conditions such as poor upbringing and mental health. Japan is not exactly a poverty stricken country.

The economy it's been worsening on the last 30 years.

Unless the situation changes, the crimes will escalate.

What a foolish researcher. If 90% of suicides are murders, the number of suicides in Japan would be 2,000. We would see the lowest suicide rate in the world.

Only if the number of suicides in the rest of the world were all genuine; if a number of them were actually murders, as this researcher asserts for Japan, then Japan's 2,000 would not necessarily be the lowest rate in the world.

“The 2017 amendments to the Penal Code in Japan increased the severity of penalties for sexual crimes and expanded the gender of rape victims from being limited to women to include men. However, LGBTQ individuals and intellectuals have pointed out that the current law still far from matches the reality of actual damage, including that of sexual minorities, and that this has led to the underestimation of damage to some rape victims.”

Date-rape assaults involving the illicit administration of drugs are on the increase.

Summer time I can’t even wear a tighter top because they keep staring at my breasts

I'm assuming you’re a woman then

I'm more aware and ready to punch or kick any that comes closer. I’m ready to punch

good for you

nondualism

Crime rates in Japan are many times higher than what the statistics tell you (for example, one Japanese researcher believes that 90% of suicides are, in fact, murders), and this could be just an increase in reporting anyway, which is good.

Could you please tell me the name of that Japanese researcher or any links about this? That is very interesting and I wonder what evidence the researcher has found.

Also thank you very much for those links about under-reporting in Japan. It's really shocking. That article "Japan's Not-So-Secret Shame" says, "Over 95 percent of incidents of sexual violence in Japan are not reported to the police according to government figures, and for good reason." That is just insane and how they have the sexual assault victims re-enact the crime with a doll while police scrutinize? Wow, that is awful.

Your other link from Global Voices about Train Attacks was also eye-opening:

"In a 2019 report by the Japanese government, 65 percent of women who responded reported experiencing groping, unwanted touching, and similar kinds of sexual assault, commonly experienced on crowded trains.

By some estimates, over 95 percent of incidents of sexual violence in Japan are not reported to the police. A 2019 report by the Japanese government found that sex crimes continue to be significantly underreported in Japan, with just 14 percent of women who experienced sexual assault reporting the incident to police."

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing these.

Off course it's because the COVID situation..

But things are coming back to normal and crime will be get lower..

With all this, Japan is still one of the safest countries in the world..

GO JAPAN!!!...

There were about 900 murders in 2022.

We get the same comments over and over again.

Sexual assaults under reported in Japan.

The crime rates are higher experts say, blah blah blah

Sexual assaults and harrassment are under reported in every country this we know.

The crime rates in every country are under reported as many chose not to report certain things and especially in certain areas of certain countries where even talking to the police can be fatal.

30 years in Japan and I have yet to find a place so dangerous that it is to be avoided at night even less during the day.

My home city in Canada is considered one of the safest large cities in North America and I can point out several areas not to be in at night if you value your life and even a few were I wouldn't go even in the day time.

So stop trying to pretend Japan has anything even remotely close to most western countries in the way of crime.

Hakman...

So I hope you're not implying that Vietnamese people should be kept out of Japan. Because the numbers don't add up high enough to support that.

Sir..B....

Not that i condone it, but 3 as apposed to 9,533 is a drop in the river.

Its three murders that I can remember that were reported on JT. Of course the vast majority of ALL people are reasonably law abiding. But that is three people who would not have been murdered had Japan not gone down the cheap labor road. Japan is still a relatively safe place to live. I don't want to see it go the same way as much of Europe with immigrant drug, knife and grooming gangs. The immigrant prison population of the UK well over represented.

wallace

Today 03:41 pm JST

There were about 900 murders in 2022

Source please!

That would be nearly triple the number in murders per year for each of the last ten years.

The most murders per year in the last ten years was 429 in 2012

2001 the number was 697

2020 was 318, 2019 was 319......

nondualism Today  04:16 pm JST

It is highly likely that many reported suicides are actually murders (one Japanese researcher estimates that 90% of suicides are actually murders).

Is this mentioned on that Evaporated Podcast or do you have a link about this? It's really interesting so I'm just curious. I'm going to listen to that podcast but it'd be great if you could share any sources about this.

one Japanese researcher estimates that 90% of suicides are actually murders).

Around 70% of suicide among males and around 60% among females were by hanging.

Seems difficult to murder someone by hanging

There are in fact some good investigative journalists in Japan but they do not get a lot of recognition.

So not good.

Good story though

nondualism

Today 04:23 pm JST

Yes, and you are probably a male so have no awareness of what it's like to be a female in Japan.

What does being a man have to do with it?

Oh right your selective reading.

You forgot to point out I said there are several areas in my home city that I wouldn't go at night some not even in the day time.

Man or woman, don't know any like that in Japan.

Please give it a break.

If I or other men have no go zones in their countries take a guess how bad it would be for women in those zones.

You can invent all the guessing on the "real" crime rate you think it is in Japan but the reality is that Japan is far far far safer than any western country for men and women.

Coming from a minor Western European country I never felt that big difference in safety.

Yes Japan despite the rise of crimes is still safe but I wouldn’t say so much for women.

Plus I can’t understand why people here tend always to compare it with the US.

Role models should he Denmark,Austria and the nordic countries.

But even a big one like Germany makes it in the top 20 list.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world

nondualism

Today 04:40 pm JST

You seem to make a lot of claims but somehow not one fact to back anything you say up.

Please tell us these no go zones in Tokyo, Osaka, etc...

You see in London, Paris, Marseille, Toronto, New York, Vancouver L.A. etc... Anyone living in those cities will tell you where to avoid going if you value your life.

But 30 years in Japan and I cannot tell you any place in Tokyo that is actually dangerous.

Of a few dodgy places like Kabukicho, but dangerous, No.

William77

Today 04:47 pm JST

I don't want to be mean but giving a random "peace index" which again is a total made up things based on perception not facts and especially based on "European" view point.

Now try using actually statistics.

Crime is lower in Japan than Nordic countries.

Just looking at homicide rate.

Norway is double that of Japan.

Austria is nearly 3 times that of Japan

Sweden and Finland are near 5 and 6 times the homicide rate of Japan.

Just standard crime rates Denmark, Sweden Norway, Finland and Austria all higher than Japan.

All available on the same World Population Review site you used.

Japan is far less safe for women than any other Western nation except the US

A bold conclusion but declaring at the same time that there's no data or stats to based it on.

Again, you can not use Japanese crime statistics because of the way crime is reported (or rather not reported).

So just use your imagination instead hahahaha

AntiquesavingToday  05:11 pm JST

William77

Today 04:47 pm JST

I don't want to be mean but giving a random "peace index" which again is a total made up things based on perception not facts and especially based on "European" view point.

Now try using actually statistics.

Crime is lower in Japan than Nordic countries.

Just looking at homicide rate.

Norway is double that of Japan.

Austria is nearly 3 times that of Japan

Sweden and Finland are near 5 and 6 times the homicide rate of Japan.

Just standard crime rates Denmark, Sweden Norway, Finland and Austria all higher than Japan.

All available on the same World Population Review site you used.

I brought you official numbers from a reliable source which I linked as well,on the other hand you are just staring numbers without even showing us from which source you get them.

Besides I was born and grew up in a nordic country and I can tell you it is as quiet as Japan but with less rigid rules and for sure safer for women.

Meh…; still a nation of one hundred and thirty million…; …extremely safe. (the “G7 of safety”: Iceland… Finland… Sweden… Norway… Denmark… New Zealand and… Japan…)

nondualism

I still can't access your archives.

In Japan, these numbers are utterly meaningless due to the significant amount of unreported murders.

Unreported murders. So you are saying people get away with murders? I think you have been watching too many Murder She Wrote, your something.

I can't take you seriously and wonder why you are even living here.

In 2021, there were 874 murders.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1039166/japan-number-of-murders/#:~:text=The%20police%20in%20Japan%20recorded%20874%20murder%20cases%20in%202021.

But you are saying how many went unreported?

I brought you official numbers from a reliable source which I linked as well,on the other hand you are just staring numbers without even showing us from which source you get them.

I did

All available on the same World Population Review site you used.

How hard was that to understand.

But apparently it was so here same source you used.

And one more

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/murder-rate-by-country

https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/murder-rate-by-country/

In 2021, there were 874 murders.

> https://www.statista.com/statistics/1039166/japan-number-of-murders/#:~:text=The%20police%20in%20Japan%20recorded%20874%20murder%20cases%20in%202021.

> But you are saying how many went unreported?

Read the title correct.

Number of homicide cases recorded by the police in Japan from 2012 to 2021

Not cases for 2021 and even then is incorrect

https://knoema.com/atlas/Japan/Number-of-homicides?mode=amp

Number of homicide cases recorded by the police in Japan from 2012 to 2021

you can read the total for each year.

874 for 2021.

929 for 2020.

The numbers for each year are quite consistent.

I trust the stats from Statista

my question was to nondualism who stated that murders go unreported which I just find hard to accept since all dead people need a death certificate issued by a doctor.

Where are the bodies of those unreported murders?