Crime in Japan rises in 1st half of 2023 as COVID restrictions ease

The numbers include burglaries linked to yami baito, or "dark part-time work," where individuals are often recruited via social media to commit crimes for money.

Only someone raised in a fatherless home can attest about how dangerous it is to grow up without anyone to actually hold you and educate you during these most challenging years..,these youngsters actually believe they can earn ¥100.000 in a single day without any repercussions to their future just because they call it a "baito".

Bad News of course, i hope that people are becoming more aware of this and guard their properties in a better fashion, locking windows at night or when away from home is a good start. having security cameras inside and outside is a good deterrence too, it's affordable now and can be easily installed DIY.

Glad they didn't post stats on Japanese vs non Japanese crime. Pervious articles like this used to paint the picture Japanese people were not committing crimes and putting the blame elsewhere.

They used to also include visa overstayers in the stats skewing a large percentage as foreigners as the problem of crime, glad to see no mention.

333,003 for a country of 125 millions is nothing..

The country will return to its normal levels and the crime figures will continue to drop.

GO JAPAN !!..

Is there really a correlation between Covid restriction easing and crime? I would assume everyone wearing masks would help burglars blend in with the crowd when plotting an escape. lol

The increase may be related to the financial circumstances of those who choose these "Baito". It's just like those who choose to work in the sex industry or Papa-Katsu, they don't want to do it if they don't have to, but they do it so that they can take back some of their debt or make ends meet.

An interesting video if anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSfhD5JEY6M

The good news is they caught the bad ppl.

Don't lose sight: 20% of not very much is still not very much.

Is there really a correlation between Covid restriction easing and crime?

Apparantly so. "Petty crime" was way down during the more restrictive Covid years and is apparantly bouncing back and overshooting a bit now, almost as if it had some catching up to do.

But there's also an argument that crime in Japan is so low (it's a fifth of what it was 20 years ago) that even double digit point increases or decreases are just fluctuations around the bottom line.

Here in NZ there is never mention of foreigners being singled out or discussed in regard to crime even with some recent high-profile cases

Because civilized countries don't do that

It's very dangerous and harmful to society to single out a particular group of the community as being somehow more prone to commit crimes as Ishihara did.

I agree. But Japanese society is all about othering the outside world

I've been very curious about the idea of 'low crime Japan' because that was not my experience when I lived there I felt it was similar to most Western nations overall (except the US of course).

That is probably true.

Many scholars point out some interesting facts about the phenomena but the most interesting perhaps is the way ion which crime is reported and recorded is different in Japan and may hide a much more 'normal' crime rate.

Well said.

The numbers of crimes;

First half of 2019 (before Covid-19) : 363k

First half of 2022 : 275k

First half of 2023 : 333k

After all, the Covid-19 seems to have the certain influence.

I've been very curious about the idea of 'low crime Japan' because that was not my experience when I lived there I felt it was similar to most Western nations overall (except the US of course).

However, are there many countries other than Japan where women and children can walk alone at night?　Or how many countries are there where dropped items can be easily found?

"Low crime level" generally seems to mean a low possibility of males being involved in violent street crime: the fear of random violence.

Many scholars point out some interesting facts about the phenomena but the most interesting perhaps is the way ion which crime is reported and recorded is different in Japan and may hide a much more 'normal' crime rate.

I concur, and that's why one generally can't place too much worth on absolute numbers. But underreporting would apply to both today's numbers and to the numbers 20 years ago. Relatively speaking, the 80% decrease in crime would still be there.

Also, while it is absolutely true that Japan isn't free of all crime, especially domestic and organized crime, compared to even other "developed" countries it has extremely little random petty crime: pickpocketing, thievery, muggings. And that makes for a very unburdened everyday life here.

I kinda expected this to happen. Restrictions have dropped and more people are about, more targets for would-be criminals. Watch yourselves out there.

Shoplifting by over 60s is so high according to the supermarket security person I am friends with. Abenomics, Kishida thank you!

Worse than Detroit and the worst criminals still only get suspended sentences. So many weirdos on the trains recently causing trouble.

@nihonenigma

japan is a much larger country than the UK

I would have thought that the rise in crime was linked to the rise in the cost of living rather than the end of Covid restrictions.

Japan is very comparable with regard to petty crime in nations such as (...) All places where pickpocketing and muggings are almost unheard of

Having lived quite some time in two of the countries you listed, I disagree somewhat. Japan is most definitely on a different scale than those countries, even on a generally very low level. Germany for example has ten times the pickpocketing cases, at two thirds of Japan's population. Paris alone has the same number of cases as all of Japan. It doesn't make neither Germany nor France unlivable of course, but it makes for a difference you notice in everyday life. Leaving your belongings on a bar counter when going to the toilet, regardless whether that's smart, and finding them untouched when you return is only possible in Japan.

Have you visited any other nations I listed (Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal)?

Some of them. And I'm with you, they don't necessarily feel "unsafe". But there's cities or city parts I prefer to not walk alone at night -- and I'm not particularly squeamish. I stand by my opinion that, for petty crime and its tangible presence in everyday life, Japan occupies the very bottom end with quite some distance to most if not all other countries.

As for harrassment of women, my wife says rather than an actual threat it's more of a constant nuisance, mainly by older men riffing on bygone gender stereotypes. Which I find bad enough. But neither can I corraborate or disprove her opinion nor can I contribute anything meaningful to the discussion. Rather than making an uninformed judgement I'd would like to leave that one to those who are actually affected by it.

@finally rich

What are you talking about?

Are you suggesting that children raised by a single mother don’t know the difference between right and wrong and aren’t raised to understand risk and danger in society.

Absolute nonsense that one might have expected to hear in 1823, not 2023.

Nihon,I say hi to.mean looking people,

Shoplifting by over 60s is so high according to the supermarket security person I am friends with. 

I got to see the unpretty image of an elderly woman being arrested by the police because she stole a single can of beer from a supermarket.

Although japan is no hellhole like london or brazil, it certainly is no paradise like some desperately try to make it out to be.

Crime happens in japan. And some of it is terribly violent and awful. It's a fact.

RandyJohnson: ....no hellhole like London.....

London is not a hellhole, the following places certainly are:

North Korea, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, the slums of most South-Asian capital-cities, the Palestinian camps...... all these places have in common absolute deprivation of freedom, food, and the right to a peaceful existence, without violence and total surveillance.

One thing ( of so many ) that is so unbelievably ludicrous about crime in japan is that the japanese national police agency releases a report about the statistics of rapes every single year, and gosh golly gee wouldn't ya know it, there approximately 2,000 rapes ever single year with nary a variation in the total numbers of rapes year on year. It's always really close to the magical 2,000 number total.

Amazing how that number fluctuates so little year after year. Simply amazing...