The number of recorded crimes in Japan continued to decrease in the first half of 2018 to a level not seen in the postwar period, mainly due to falling theft rates, preliminary police data showed Thursday.
The total stood at 398,615 crimes, down 52,054 from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Police Agency. The pace of decline was faster than when the figure in 2017 hit the lowest level since the end of World War II on a full-year basis.
Thefts accounted for more than 70 percent of all registered crimes but were on the decline, apparently thanks to the proliferation of security cameras.
However, the number of reported sexual crimes rose in the first six months. The increase comes after the penal code was revised last July to eliminate a requirement that a victim must file a complaint before rape or sexual molestation can be prosecuted.
The revision also broadened the definition of rape to include male victims.
The data showed that the police had to deal with many crimes targeting children and fraud cases involving increasingly sophisticated methods.
Police in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, said Thursday they have arrested an unemployed 52-year-old man on a charge of forcible obstruction of business after he left several bottles filled with urine at a koban (police box) in March and April.
According to police, Shujiro Oze took bottles filled with urine, an empty instant noodles container and chopsticks to the police box at Chigasaki Stations South Entrance. Sankei Shimbun reported that Oze did this whenever an officer would leave the police box unattended. On one occasion, he left eight bottles filled with 500 mm of urine.
After examining street surveillance footage and conducting a DNA test on the urine, police were able to identify Oze as a possible suspect in the case.
Police said Oze has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying, When I asked police to warn people who smoke while walking, they ignored my request. That made me mad.
In May, a 7-year-old girl in the city of Niigata, central Japan, was abducted on her way home from school before being killed and abandoned on a railway track.
The murder has led to a nationwide check of routes taken by elementary school pupils.
In the half-year period, the police took enforcement actions in 152,799 cases against 100,579 people, down 8,379 and 5,115 from a year earlier, respectively. The number of people included 11,689 juveniles.
Excluding serial thefts and other crimes perpetrated by the same culprit, the police took enforcement actions in 99,763 cases, of which 17,289 resulted from voluntary police questioning and 8,746 from footage recorded by security cameras and other devices.
I think people often underestimate how this is one of the most safe and secure periods in all of human history for first world nations.
Just Japan tho, do'nt lump yourself with their crime decrease.
Especially living ina country where you ahve to send yoru children to school wearing kevlar.
iirc the US crime rates in general are lowering too, just more mass shootings. Funnily enough, some EU countries like UK and Sweden have increasing crime rates.
Our "amazing" governmemt here in the UK cut 10'000 Police officers. ---
