As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do

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The fact that your article starts with a fallacy (the bayonet training part) doesn't help its credibility...

It is also slightly off topic. The original article talks about catching criminals, yours talk about conviction. The issue is about what constitutes rape in Japan, not the effectiveness of the Police.

There is still an interesting bit in the original article : "The hunt for things to do may sometimes be beneficial. The number of reported cases of children being abused at home has almost doubled since 2010, despite the declining birth rate. That suggests the police are increasingly intervening in the domestic sphere, which they used to avoid.". It means that we might see an improvement when it comes to domestic violence (which can include rape).

I would caution anyone reading this top-voted comment to look at any other story about crime stats in Japan. This knee-jerk response about manipulated statistics is almost always in the response. If you don’t think crime is exceptionally low in Japan, go spend a year or two outside Tokyo and get back to us.

This is from... 1994? How relevant is it to 2017?

This is purely anecdotal but my sister lived in Japan for many years, and she tells me that the policing there is very... uneven, I guess you'd describe it. The police won't get too involved in anything that's not a sure bet to be solved (eg. unexpected deaths are very likely to be written off as suicide) but on the flip side, once they accuse you of something the conviction rate is near 100%. Also if you get a speeding ticket you have to write an apology letter saying how sorry you are, as well as pay the fine.

One line from the discussion section of this paper seemed to capture the essence of the concern:

>Although Japan's rate of homicide is low compared to many other advanced countries, Japan's rate of unexpected deaths including homicides, traffic accidents, industrial accidents, and suicides is near the median among the selected advanced industrial countries.

Government.

Why ego? This is just as easily explained by habit/routine/dependence on the group by its members

It's an example of a principle-agent problem, for one. Generally speaking, members of groups make decisions that are better for them than for the group.

Jerry Pournelle's "Iron Law of Bureaucracy" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle#Iron_Law_of_Bu...) seems related.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is partially the case, but the homicide rate suggests to me that there is also a significantly lower amount of (serious) crime - it seems difficult and unlikely that murder would or could be handled without involving authorities.

> they don't somehow possess a special human nature that removes all the nasty emotional impetus behind crime.

It's called culture, and it is causal.

I experienced exactly the opposite of your comment. Going to the police was the default answer for Japanese. A friend of mine parked his bike in front of his apartment one evening, the police were called and the bike was destroyed by the time he had asked about it the next day.

Indeed! However, asking modern police to do infrastructure work of that sort might be too much. However, what police officer would turn down an opportunity to get trained as a programmer, and then put to work in forensics, workflow, or national cyber defense?

When everyone agrees to a single set of cultural norms you don't need law enforcement to keep them.

Crime rates are dropping almost everywhere; the exceptions are short term increases during episodes of societal disruption (e.g. wars).

One of the reasons Japan's rate is so low is that they're ahead of other countries in the race to grow old; the vast majority of crime, and especially violent crime, is committed by young people.

As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do

There was just one fatal shooting in the whole of 2015

May 18th 2017 | TOKYO

THE stake-out lasted a week, but it paid off in the end. The tireless police of Kagoshima, a sleepy city in the far south of the country, watched the unlocked car day and night. It was parked outside a supermarket, and contained a case of malt beer. Finally, a passing middle-aged man decided to help himself. Five policemen instantly pounced, nabbing one of the city’s few remaining law-breakers.

Japan’s cluttered streets are not always pretty but they are remarkably safe. Crime rates have been falling for 13 years. The murder rate of 0.3 per 100,000 people is among the lowest in the world; in America it is almost 4 (see chart). A single gun slaying was recorded for the whole of 2015. Even yakuza gangsters, once a potent criminal force, have been weakened by tougher laws and old age.

https://i.imgur.com/QpYCERQ.png

Yet, far from being pensioned off, the police are growing in numbers: beat cops, known colloquially as omawari-san (Mr Walk-around), are a fixture in most neighbourhoods. Japan has over 259,000 uniformed officers—15,000 more than a decade ago, when crime rates were far higher. The ratio of officers to population is very high, especially in Tokyo, home to the world’s biggest metropolitan police force—a quarter bigger than the one protecting New York.

This means plenty of attention for crimes that would be considered too petty to investigate elsewhere, such as the theft of a bicycle or the possession of a tiny amount of drugs. One woman describes how five officers crowded into her cramped apartment after she reported her knickers being swiped from a clothesline. A small army of detectives was assigned last year to apprehend a group of 22 people who had been growing marijuana for their personal use only and smoking it in deserted rural spots.

In fact, as the police run out of things to do, they are becoming more inventive about what constitutes a crime, says Kanako Takayama of Kyoto University. In one recent case, she says, they arrested a group of people who had shared the cost of renting a car, deeming the arrangement an illegal taxi. Some prefectures have begun prosecuting people who ride their bicycles through red lights.

In 2015 a man was arrested for scribbling Adolf Hitler moustaches onto posters of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Ms Takayama says detectives have started appearing without permission on university campuses, to monitor “troublesome” students. One reason why police are going after cyclists may be to make up for the steady fall in driving offences. (Both drivers and cyclists can avoid fines by signing up for remedial training at certified driving schools, which are often staffed by retired officers, notes Colin Jones of Doshisha University.) Fifteen years ago police in Hokkaido, in Japan’s sparsely populated north, conspired with yakuza gangsters to smuggle guns into the country so they could meet quotas for finding them.

The hunt for things to do may sometimes be beneficial. The number of reported cases of children being abused at home has almost doubled since 2010, despite the declining birth rate. That suggests the police are increasingly intervening in the domestic sphere, which they used to avoid.

Even critics of Japan’s justice system accept that it gets a lot right. Rates of recidivism are low and a great deal of effort is made to keep young offenders out of the prison system; police work with parents to keep young people on the straight and narrow. Adults are incarcerated at a far lower rate than in most rich countries: 45 per 100,000, compared with 146 in Britain and 666 in the United States.

Yet the police are oddly inefficient. Even though there are so many officers and so few crimes, they solve less than 30% of them. Confessions, often made under duress, form the basis of most criminal prosecutions. The courts dismissed the case of the beer thief in Kagoshima, despite all the work that went into it. Japan is almost crime-free not thanks to the police, says Yoshihiro Yasuda, a campaigning lawyer, but because people police themselves.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Petty officers"

Loaded properly for me: Edge 40.15063.728.0, mobile version.

The most important factors I'd say would be:

(1) overall wealthy (compared to the rest of the world)

(2) political stability, strong rule of law, low corruption

(3) no extreme differences between rich and poor, with the majority being 'middle class' (neither rich, nor poor).

(4) social redistribution and welfare system, reinforcing (3) by avoiding poverty traps (health issues, low education, debt spiral).

(5) near mono-culture whose norms and values value conformity and avoiding social friction ("the needs of the many ...")

(6) relative isolation to the rest of the world, very strict immigration laws, reinforcing (5)

I can see the same properties (somewhat differently, of course) and results in Norway or Switzerland.

All factors naturally reinforce each other. There's undoubtedly more, but I think those are the most important ones.

Community policing probably helps. There is a police station every few blocks it seems in Tokyo.

I was going say, in the two weeks we were in Japan we were randomly stopped to have our passports checked sooo many times. Particularly in Kyoto. The plain clothes cops made me a little uncomfortable.

To be fair though in the middle of my trip the Akihabara massacre happened and visible police presence went way up after that.

My friend and I spoke the least of anyone in the group, and were actually in Akihabara at the time with no idea at all what was going on. We were there to return a camera, and we noted the place was CRAWLING with news crews. Didn’t figure it out until we got back to our friends who had been watching the news, terrified something had happened.

We were randomly passport checked before that happened however.

Just came back from 3 weeks trip through Japan (mostly Tokyo and Kyoto). Haven't spoke to police even once.

That's weird, I've heard that Tokyo cops do that but I've never been stopped once in eight years of living in Saitama (the prefecture just north of Tokyo). It's certainly not because I blend in, I'm cacausian and 188cm tall.

I often hear stories like this but in roughly 6 months I've spent in Japan the only interaction I've had with police is when I initiate the interaction to ask directions, and they are always super friendly and helpful. (I'm a middle aged white guy)

Do you think it was the bike, or your appearance? I'm a tall white guy living near a police station in Tokyo for over 2 years and I've never once been stopped by the police, but I also don't own a bike.

Or London, where violent crime is skyrocketing and it's commonly thought the lack of enough police is one reason.

You post is tongue-in-cheek but it brings up an interesting question: Is an experienced foreign policeman a better candidate than an untrained lifelong citizen who is just starting a career? I would guess no, since laws and "the way of doing things" are so different that it would be better for trainee police to start with a clean slate.

What groping issue?

Can you elaborate on this groping issue?

That's exactly what I was wondering. As far as I know, many streets in Japan are still ruled by the Yakuza.

The Yakuza isn't counted, most of what they do is corruption, blackmail and unofficial / off the books crime. There are a bunch of gangs actively working to take their place as well, none of it is being officially counted:

"The Upstart Gangs Filling the Yakuza Power Vacuum"

https://www.nippon.com/en/features/c04205/