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In the past month, several serious crimes involving women victims have been reported nationwide. At the beginning of April, Kanako Ishida, 19, was kidnapped, drugged and confined in a car in Ome, Tokyo. Just after this kidnapping case, a female officer worker, 23, disappeared from her apartment. During Golden Week, student Manami Shimizu, 15, was killed on a street in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, and Miho Kosuzgi, 15, was found murdered in the woods in Maizuru City, Kyoto. Apart from the Ishida case, no suspect has been arrested yet in spite of witnesses and evidence left at the scene of the crime.
Why are police having trouble solving these cases?
“There has been a wave of retirement of skilled and experienced police officers from the baby boom generation, which is causing serious problems,” said Itsuo Tobimatsu, a former Hyogo prefectural police detective. “While the number of security cameras is increasing and investigative technology is being improved, the investigative skills and motivation of individual officers are declining. Manami Kosugi's murder in Toyota City might have been prevented, in my opinion, because there had been reports of suspicious persons lurking in the area. At the very least, police patrols should have been stepped up, which is a basic security measure.”
Journalist Akio Kuroki, a former Tokyo metropolitan police officer, says the morale of the police force is quite low in Toyota City. “When I visited the crime scene, I found abandoned shoes, covers and batteries which police had used. This is unbelievable. In the past, if such a crime scene investigation had been sloppily handled, the chief of the forensic science team would have been fired.”
“Police officers cannot catch up with the high-tech investigative methods so quickly,” said another ex-cop. “When I talked with young police officers about a case concerning an anonymous online bulletin board, I found they didn't even know how to contact the service provider so they could trace illegal posters, which would have made the investigation much easier. Even now, police are just starting to learn how to analyze mobile phones, but the gadgetry is getting more sophisticated all the time.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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rjd_jr
That such crimes, while horrendous, make such notice shows that Japan is safer than many other countries. Yet this also shows that the "police" force here in many parts of Japan have a lot of work to do
GrouchyGaijin
Should read "Wave of retirements further impairs police investigative ability." Motivation and skill, or lack thereof, is a primary factor.
netrek
Ugh this doesn't bode well. Sounds like whoever is in charge of Japan's national police force has to get off his arse and address these problems from the top down if local officials are indifferent.
MichaelJP
What a sad situation to be in. Its a pity that a tiny fraction of the money thrown away on useless construction work couldn't be diverted to training a new generation of skilled investigative officers, giving them access to state-of-the art equipment, and generally boosting their numbers and prestige. I'm guessing the police force is currently riddled with yakuza plants and cult infiltrators like Om Shin.
KyouNoNippon
Fixed!
omarbabilon
So they think this is the reason because they cant solve this cases?... I think this is not true, it only a excuse, because at first japanese police officers are uncapable to do anything against any japanese citizen at first, i remember one day i saw a drunken man (japanese) fighting with six police officers, and it was incredible, no one of the officers could touch him, or take any action over him, as any police officer in USA, in USA or many other countries if you dont stop your car, or you refuse to freeze, ussually the police officer act in a rude way, making you kiss the ground, or even they shot you, but in Japan, police officers act like "sweet mama" with drunken people and if they find a yakuza beating anybody, they only continue their way and dont do anything. Why??... maybe they think "do the right thing" is only for the stupid characters they read everyday in manga. And by the other hand, police bureu pretend japanese people to believe foreigners are dangerous to japanese people, and waste time hunting suspicious "gaijin" whose they think are illegal or something like that, a total waste of time, because there are hundreds of illegal car dealers and thousands of illegal foreigners whos police will never catch, simply because they dont know the customs and can't understand the mind of foreing people who is out of the law, it means... hmmm.... i think it could sound incredible in this monoracial and chauvinist country, but they need foreing people to join police force, and by the other hand forget that "everybody knows" double standard and treat a japanese suspected of crime behavior as they could do with a foreign in the same situation.
Smythe
I would think that the Japanese police depts, might higer back some of those skilled ones, for like a year or two, as the others learn from them or from special programs on certain matters.
That is what is being done in some other countries that I know of.
GW
they shudnt have to hire back old foggies, the mgmt of the police force is non-existant, clearly they cud see people retiring in the future but what did they do to pass on skills, nothing, duh!
Cops are no different than politicians, they cant see the future until heads them square on the head & then wonder what happened & what to do.....and then we get the good ole shoganai....
Betting
It is a not problem caused by retirements, it is caused by not having a satisfactory training system in place. The experience from the cops of earlier times should have been passed down to younger cops, it's the same in any job/industry. Now, the Japanese police force will need to rebuild.
And with the new technology available, from the article anyway, it appears that the police force haven't keep up with this either. So it is a double whammy, experience not being passed down the "generations" and not keeping up with the new either. A not promising situation.
European1
Common! so there is no one to work? Yeah, if foreigner would kill Japanese they move they asses like ants but in own people cases they do nothing. If you work for Police, work and not seat in Koban. Today I saw 2 Policmen stopped on bicycle 3 Japanese young girls. No idea what they`ve done, I only saw Police writing down something, so it is not only us foreigners they hunt, but this is the only thing they know. Get your a:: and get job done!
European1
They keep up with HighTech, they found "Winny" software to share.
capone
good excuse...completely lame and unbelievable, but at least he tried
capone
and here i was thinking that it's their thunderous stupidity
kumasan1969
RIP Kuroki-san...