At least I can infer from the headline that crime is very low in Japan. I wonder what they're doing that the rest of the world aren't
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.
That's... pretty impressive for a guy that old.
Or to be more precise: young males.
Edit: to clarify, I am saying that Japan does not have a gender ratio all that different from other countries - meaning that gender differences shed no light on its crime rates. It's an irrelevant statistic.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_crime#World...
(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.
Japan has a Spartan welfare system:
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/world/welfare-as-japan-kno...
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/06/16/editorials/s...
And the “stability” itself is the result of American intelligence services intervention in their political system(dating back to the occupation) to undermine any leftist challenge to conservative rule.
You can read about both circumstances in Tim Weiner’s book on the CIA, “Legacy of Ashes.”
Scholars say that the system in Japan almost never breeds dependence, and they suggest that the Japanese approach has emphasized the work ethic and the importance of family ties.
Caseworkers rigorously check applicants and drop by their homes regularly to make sure that they do not have banned luxuries like cars or air conditioners, and fraud seems extremely rare.
Japan does have two elements of a social welfare program that far surpass anything in the United States: universal medical care and comprehensive day care.
Everyone has access to doctors and hospitals at affordable prices, with the services free for the poor. And neighborhood nurseries throughout Japan provide excellent care for children from six months old to school age, if mothers work, for a modest fee that is waived for low-income families.
Only 1% Japanese births are to unwed mothers. That compares with 30% of USA.
''The Japanese have a tendency to regard it as extremely shameful to receive welfare, and so they are hesitant,'' said Toshio Hata, a senior welfare official in Kawasaki.
An applicant who owns a home is normally advised to sell it and use the proceeds until the money runs out -- and then to apply again. In May, a 96-year-old man was dropped from welfare because it came to light that he had $30,000 in savings. The caseworker told him to use that up and then reapply.
A welfare worker has a caseload of about 60 in Japan, and there is time for regular, unscheduled visits to recipients' homes. The caseworkers have great discretion in handling cases, as well as considerable moral authority in advising recipients what to do.
Correlation does not equal causation.
Obviously a big part of crime comes out of desperation (hunger) which might be going down as you say.
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"
The key to having such a degree of integration is to spread the good equally between social groups - there should not be first and second class. Everyone must be in the same class. Otherwise, the discriminated class will resent it and think of themselves as not part of the same society, so, why respect its rules? Example: black neighborhoods in NY.
The Japanese way of reducing crime - by reducing class difference and keeping everyone well connected in the social web. But I perceive the risk of reduced diversity, lack of creativity and innovation in that kind of system. Integration must be balanced by differentiation and vice-versa, if it is to work well.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/asia/japan-lonely-d...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
Caste-based discrimination was an important civil rights issue for most of the 20th century, and still has long standing effects on the organization and opportunities for people in Japanese society.
And of course there’s also Zainichi Koreans, long standing Chinese communities in places like Kanagawa, the urban rural divide, and countless more divisions that counter you’re simplistic description of Japan as a uniform society.
Despite there being many poor, segregated communities in the USA, crime is perpetrated by and happens in only a few select communities. In fact, many poor communities thrive because of segregation. In an integrated society, members of the poor communities would be marginalized due to language and cultural barriers because there would not be a support network of people from similar cultural backgrounds. (although the communities where crime is commonplace would benefit from integration by spreading the crime around to different communities instead of keeping it within the community)
Japanese culture and values across all groups are much more homogenous and conducive to a civilized society. People look down upon crimes and value hard work and education.
On the other hand, there are communities in the USA who have values that are not conducive to civilized society and that glorify crime and hedonism and look down on the educated. Coincidentally, these communities also disproportionately contain the perpetrators of crimes.
On the surface level, it appears that the value system of the disruptive groups are the problem because many segregated, poor groups can live in civilized peace. Segregation itself is not a problem.
Everything points to the malfunctioning culture and value system of specific groups in the USA. Integration may help in so much as it dilutes the toxicity of the culture and value system of these groups.