Japan is seeing a sharp rise in scams involving individuals posing as police officers, with losses exceeding ¥31.6 billion ($217 million) in the first five months of 2025.
The National Police Agency has launched a nationwide awareness campaign for such cases, warning that increasingly sophisticated means of committing fraud — involving spoofed phone numbers, social media messages and video calls — are being used to target victims.
Police impersonation scams alone accounted for 3,816 recognized fraud cases between January and May this year, according to the agency. Victims span multiple generations, with cases involving people in their 20s and 30s accounting for 40% of them.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.