The number of criminal cases reported to police in Japan increased for the third year in a row in 2024 according to data released in a report by the National Police Agency on Thursday, mainly due a rise in the number of cases of investment fraud and scams via social media.
A survey released in the same report also found that an increasing number of people feel that Japan has become less safe in the past decade.
According to the data, there were 737,679 crimes reported to police in 2024, up 4.9% from the year before, although this was lower than the number before the pandemic in 2019.
The most drastic increase was seen in criminal cases of fraud, which numbered 57,324 — up 24.6% from the previous year and with a total of ¥307.5 billion in damages recorded. The total value of damages rose 89.1% from the previous year.
Investment fraud and romance scams using social media, seen as the main reason for the rise, were identified in 10,164 cases in 2024 with damages totaling ¥126.8 billion.
The most common motive behind committing fraud was poverty, making up nearly 40% of the cases.
The agency says that “the situation is extremely challenging” when crimes are carried out using technology and services offered online, which become infrastructure for criminal activity.
Use of the internet for criminal purposes is also seen in cases involving tokuryū, or quasi-gangsters in anonymous and loosely organized criminal groups, who are often perpetrators of such scams.
The report shows that tokuryū also continue to play a major role in serious crimes such as burglary, although the number of cases is similar to those from the previous year, with a significant spike in such cases since August.
Tokuryū groups often recruit potential criminals through adverts on the internet for "shady" part-time jobs that fail to specify details of the work in full while promising quick, easy money, and then using the personal information applicants provide to blackmail them so they don’t back out.
As a measure to combat such operations, the agency released a video in October to encourage people experiencing such difficulties to seek assistance from the police. In the period from the start of the campaign until the end of the year, the agency offered protection to individuals and their families in 181 cases, according to the report.
More recently, the agency announced guidelines for issuing fake identification to undercover investigators so they can infiltrate such operations.
According to the report, sexual crimes were also on the rise, with nonconsensual acts of sexual misconduct increasing by 14.7% and cases of nonconsensual sexual intercourse up by 45.2%. Crimes involving nonconsensual filming that is sexual in nature have tripled as well.
The agency also released the results of a survey conducted online last October among 5,000 people over the age of 15, which showed that 76.6% of respondents felt that “Japan became less safe in the last decade.” This was the highest percentage since the agency began asking the survey question in 2021.
Among those who said that they thought Japan has become less safe, 69% said that “fraud such as ‘It’s me’ scams, investment scams, romance scams and phishing scams,” were of highest concern. "It’s me" scams typically involve fraudulent financial requests made over the phone, in which elderly people are tricked into believing that the caller is a family member.
In addition, only 56.4% of the respondents said they felt Japan was safe — down from 64.7% in 2023.
Given the content of the report, the agency described Japan’s crime situation as “severe,” and stressed the importance of implementing preventive measures quickly in order to keep up with criminal methods that continue to diversify and become more sophisticated.
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