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Video # 10
Video # 10
Police in Japan seem to have a lot of time to fill due to a lack of crime to investigate.
Crime rates have been falling for 14 years. The murder rate of 0.3 per 100,000 people
is among the lowest in the world. Gun-deaths rarely rise above 10 a year.
About the only rising criminal element is the elderly. Senior citizens now account for
about 20 percent of arrests and detentions. As the population ages, those over 65 commit
nearly four times more crimes than they did two decades ago.
One result is that Japan’s jails are filling up with the infirm: more inmates need help
Yet, Japan has more than 15,000 more police personnel than it had a decade ago, when crime
rates were far higher. The density of officers per population is particularly marked in Tokyo,
As the police run out of things to do, however, police are becoming more inventive about what
constitutes a crime. In one recent case, they arrested a group of people who had shared
the fees for a rented car because they judged it was an illegal taxi.
before an elderly man decided to take it. The case was eventually thrown out by the judge,
One of the reasons Japan is cited as having very little crime is because the people there
Rates of repeat offenders are low and a lot of effort is made to keep citizens out of prison.
Adults are incarcerated at a far lower rate than in most developed countries
Precisely because it is so safe, however, some fear the system is ripe for abuse.
With little else to do, police may start finding new things to enforce.
And last year the government gave the police even more powers with a new “conspiracy” law
that allows them to investigate and arrest people who plan to commit crimes.
Whereas in some parts of the world, you can never find a cop when you need one,
Japan may have too many.
I am Gary Vernier and this has been a Pascual Bravo English documentary.
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