Japan's reputation as the most crime-free of the major industrialized nations is crumbling. It has always been a relative matter and if any proof of the change were needed beyond the daily headlines, the National Police Agency has just provided it. In a regular semiannual report, the NPA announced that the number of criminal cases reported nationwide in the first six months of the year soared past 1 million for the first time since the end of World War II. But that was only the beginning of the bad news.
At the same time that the overall crime total for the period rose by 120,135 cases, or 12.1 percent, the number of police arrests was down by 281,073, a decrease of 20.1 percent. Critics are being quick to note that this has not been a good year for the nation's police forces. A series of scandals resulting from instances of dereliction of duty, criminal malfeasance and coverups of wrongdoing by fellow officers has led to calls for major police reforms. A first reaction to the statement by an NPA official that the arrest rate has fallen because investigators are simply unable to keep up with the increase in crime may be that it sounds like an excuse for failure.
More careful consideration suggests otherwise, at least to the extent that it is unfair to expect the police to be able to step in and immediately solve all crimes, including those for which the victim is often partly to blame. These include pickpocketing, bag-snatching, credit-card theft, and bicycle and automobile theft, to name just a few. Despite the increase in criminal activity and the constant attention given to it by the media, Japan remains a country in which many people continue to have blind faith that valuable items left untended or unlocked will somehow fail to tempt the thieves, domestic and foreign, who are increasingly among us.