| Submit your comments on this article |
| East Asia |
| Japan Experiencing Rising Crime |
| 2003-09-07 |
| EFL from the NY Times. First we hear the US is actually a bit safer than Europe, and now this. This is sad if this is the way Japan is trending. Crime has risen sharply in Japan in the last few years, altering everyday lives, especially of city dwellers, and for the first time becoming a hot political issue. In one of the world’s safest countries, where people had not even been conscious of crime until a few years ago, almost everyone now knows someone who has been robbed or whose house has been broken into. While overall numbers are still low — the annual murder total has remained around 1,300 for the last decade — nationwide statistics from the National Police Agency show a rapid rise particularly in crimes affecting ordinary people. From 1998 to 2002, robberies went up 104 percent, car thefts 75 percent, purse snatchings 48 percent and burglaries 42 percent. A general category comprising six serious crimes swelled 75 percent. Today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is seeking re-election on Sept. 20 as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, convened a full cabinet meeting on crime and said he would introduce an anticrime plan by year’s end. "We cannot say Japan is the world’s safest country any more," the prime minister said. "The whole nation needs to tackle this crime issue." The National Police Agency last week announced plans to hire 10,000 more police officers over the next three years, on top of a similar increase approved last year. The police will focus on what they describe as the twin causes of rising crime: foreign criminal gangs and Japanese youths. Experts identify the prolonged economic recession and a sharp drop in traditional Japanese values as two reasons for increased youth crime. "Among the youths the basic notion of not being a nuisance to others has declined, and adults are responsible for that," said Shinichiro Kuwahara, a deputy director of the National Police Agency. "There are many parents who won’t admit their kids’ wrongdoings. They say, `Why pick on my child?’ Parents used to apologize: `I failed to raise and discipline my child properly.’ " Next week: lawsuits over spilled hot coffee! Unlike most Japanese criminals, the foreigners work in groups. Experts say these foreigners, many of them Chinese, often overstay student visas and then begin stealing goods, especially cars, to sell back home. After polls showed that public safety was a top concern of voters here in the capital, Governor Shintaro Ishihara made being tough on crime a pillar of his re-election campaign in the spring. After an easy victory, for the first time in Tokyo’s history Mr. Ishihara appointed as his lieutenant governor not a politician, but a high-ranking police official famous for his tough stance against organized crime. "There was a safety myth here — that Japan was a safe place without doing anything," said the lieutenant governor, Yutaka Takehana, who keeps a Japanese book about another famous crimefighter, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in his office. "But now that myth has collapsed." Japan remains a country where women still leave their handbags unattended in restaurants and office workers ride the bullet train and go to sleep without worrying about their briefcases. So any rise in crime is transformative. |
| Posted by:Baba Yaga |
| #3 Agreed. The Yakuza prefers to think of itself as the shadow government of Japan, a concept which harkens back to the era when many of the men who eventually became the Yakuza were disposessed samurai, financially broken minor nobles, and the occasional noble who'd been on the losing side in one of the fights for control of the government. I'm not saying they're nice people. They are NOT. But they do prefer to think of themselves as champions of the little people (In a "Godfather-ish" sort of way) and when they can indulge that feeling, they do so. Provided, of course, that any such charitable acts don't get in the way of making money. Heh. They also tend to be ultra-patriots (again, as long as it doesn't interfere with profits), and deeply resent the Chinese Tongs moving in on what they see as THEIR private property. Ed. |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2003-9-7 6:05:20 PM |
| #2 The Yakuza try to maintain a low profile. I knew a couple that was unknowlingly wondering in a bad area of Tokyo on a tourist trip. A kind fellow in a white suit (missing a few fingers) gave them a lift back to their hotel. Afterwards, they realized what he was, and figured that having having gaijin being victimized by crime in that area would draw unwanted police attention. |
| Posted by: A Jackson 2003-9-7 3:21:23 PM |
| #1 Wonder what the"Yakuza"is upto theses'days. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-9-7 1:47:03 PM |