Japan's reputation as a "safe" country under threat
The White Paper on Crime, released by the Ministry of Justice in mid-November,
revealed that the number of criminal acts that occurred in 2001 had broken
postwar record for the sixth consecutive year, but that the rate of arrests
has dropped sharply.
A total of about 3.58 million criminal acts were committed in 2001, up
10% over the previous year. The number has been increasing consistently
since 1976, with a particularly sharp rise seen from 1996. The rate of
arrests, meanwhile, was 38.8% for all criminal acts including traffic accidents,
down 3.9% over the previous year. The arrest rate for general criminal
offenses was 19.8%, dropping below 20% for the first time since the end
of World War II. This arrest rate, when compared with that for major criminal
acts made in Germany, France, the UK and the United States, is rapidly
approaching that of the lowest-ranked United States for the first time
since the survey was begun.
Although the arrest rate consistently remained above 60% throughout the
1980s, it dropped to 40% in 1990, and then plunged steeply to 20% in 2000.
While the arrest rate for murder cases is still a high 94%, hat for theft
is an extremely low 15.7%, reducing the overall figure. Although the number
of burglaries increased dramatically to 23.6% over that of the previous
year, the arrest rate fell to 48.7%, down 8.1% over the previous year.
Burglaries committed by foreign nationals living in Japan is increasing,
although the total number is still very small. As for crimes using guns
and small arms, the number of incidents in which these weapons were fired
was 215, or 81 incidents more than the previous year. Likewise, the number
of casualties was 39, or 16 more than the previous year.
These survey results strongly reflect our country's lingering recession
and the globalization of our economy. The good news is that the number
of crimes is still small compared with that seen in Europe and the United
States. Nevertheless, the fall in arrest rates is a source of a vague feeling
of anxiety, since it may be a sign that Japan's safe and peaceful society
of today--whereby many rural residents do not even lock their houses, and
where women living in big cities can walk the streets alone after dark
and not feel scared--is changing.