Crimes in Japan hit postwar low for 5th straight year

February 6, 2020

Tokyo--The number of criminal offences recognized by police in Japan in 2019 dropped 8.4 pct from the previous year to 748,623, hitting a postwar low for the fifth straight year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

The annual number declined for 17 years in a row, according to a preliminary survey report from the agency.

The decline mainly reflected a fall in the number of cases of theft thanks to crime prevention efforts by local governments and volunteers, and the increased use of security cameras.

While special fraud cases decreased 5.6 pct to 16,836, the country saw many cases of "appointment calls," in which offenders break into the homes of their targets for robbery after making phone calls to check their asset situations, according to the survey.

The NPA also said the number of 17-year-old and younger children referred by Japanese police to child consultation centers across the country as suspected victims of abuse hit a record high of 97,842, up 21.9 pct. The number of cybercrimes on which police took action came to 9,542, the highest level and up 5.6 pct.

Citing the record-high figures, an NPA official said that the situation continues to be serious.

Of the suspected abuse victims, 70,441 children, or about 70 pct, suffered psychological abuse, such as verbal threats, being ignored and seeing other family members abused in front of them.

The number of physically abused, neglected and sexually abused children came to 18,219, 8,920 and 262, respectively.

Police took action on 1,957 child abuse cases, a record high and up 41.8 pct.

The survey also showed that the number of consultations sought by people suffering violence from their partners, such as spouses, came to 82,201, and that of such domestic violence cases on which police took action stood at 9,083, with both figures posting record highs.

The number of children who were victimized through the use of social media came to 2,095, hitting the highest level.

On the cyber front, the number of suspicious access to Internet Protocol addresses detected by police came to a record high of 4,192 per day per address, up from 2,752.8 for 2018. Jiji Press