Car thefts on rise in Japan; worst in Toyota's heartland

That is too bad. The one thing I've always had nightmares is getting my car stolen. Takes me back to the third world country I'm originally from and all the messed up stuff I lived there. It's heartbreaking seeing Japan heading that way.

I rarely wash my NOAH, so I guess that's why they don't want it even here in Aichi. lol.

One of the reasons I drive an old beater. A friend of mine's Land Cruiser was stolen and when its location was found via its GPS signal it was already on a ship way out in the ocean.

Sold my car and able to cycle to the market, no wonder I lost weight recently

The thieves are so high-tech that they can break into and steal brand-new cars. Why do they think they can’t get through that lock they’re trying to put on that brand-new Land Cruiser? J police are almost useless

Nobody will steal my 25 year old e46 bmw

Foreign theft gangs at work.

There is very little checking of exported vehicles. No check of frame or engine numbers.

If the port authorities did their job properly then this issue would be stopped almost dead. Some will always slip through the net, but what bribes and backhanders are those shipping companies receiving from these gangs?

Matt,

"If the port authorities did their job properly then this issue would be stopped almost dead. Some will always slip through the net, but what bribes and backhanders are those shipping companies receiving from these gangs?"

Exactly, if the ports authority steps up and scrutinized carefully second hand car dealers or even individuals shipping cars, problem solved.

The police are not trained for something like this, they need to take a severe crash course on auto theft become more proactive get them out of the Koban and show they are not just running the clock taking taxpayer money and learn how to prevent it as much as possible, being from California, it is just a part of life, never had my car stolen, but I did have my Blaupunkt stereo stolen twice, both in broad daylight, the first time it happened I was at the mall, the second time, it was at my job, Japan is a small country, less places to go and hide, car owners or manufacturers should install a tracking device, embedded in the car to a problematic point where the thieves wouldn't have so much time to take it out or disengage it. If the criminals see and are aware that the police won't take this crime with serious urgency, not to mention hand out severe harsh sentences as a deterrent to these criminals, the problem will get out of control and become unmanageable.

Inflation pressures are causing more thefts. People are saying that inflation is "good" for Japan but all it has done is created more desperate people willing to make more money whatever means necessary. That's why old people are stealing.

So many negative social consequences due to the terrible impact of punishing sustained inflation upon society, including more and more crime as well naturally.

History shows us aging societies usually have low and decreasing crime rates, but inflation changes everything.

Better to have a “changara”,(old beat up taxi in Tokyo taxi driver’s lexicon), than a fancy one.

CAN is a protocol like Ethernet, used for in-car communications between devices.

I don't know if it works on Toyotas, but the new way to steal a car is to loosen/remove a wing panel (they're held on with plastic push rivets), get access to a headlight, plug a spoofing device into the headlight's coupler, and unlock the doors and start the engine with fake signals over CAN from the spoofing device.

Another way is to intercept keyless entry signals, this can be easy if the key is in the home within range of the car, but that usually only unlocks the car. It won't start the engine.

Your old "beat up" car will be stolen for parts - don't make "I'm safe" comments about Japan

To Russia with love, maybe I should say , a Prius

Foreign theft gangs at work.

Foreign criminal gangs. 

Absolutely..

Catch, jail and deport..

I recently saw a online video from Canada where cars were being stolen from Canada shipped and sold on the black market in Nigeria some of the cars still had the license plates and vin numbers on them

My car is a Daihatsu Wake, I wonder if those theives are interested on that model.

So Japan had fewer auto thefts than the city of Milwaukee.

> enmaaiToday  06:05 am JST

My car is a Daihatsu Wake, I wonder if those theives are interested on that model

I think my Mira ES is safe too.

When driving a Bentley one doesn't worry about theft, even here.

I am confused about the numbers reported. 6,080 annual thefts does not sound much - that about 0.07 % of the total of 82.6 million cars in Japan - and would bring Japan at the very lowest theft rate in the world.

The stat list Japan with 62,673 car thefts in year 2002 - putting Japan on 43th place globally on thefts per capity (not per car though). www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Car-thefts

So what is it? In the order of 6,000 or 60,000 cars per year?