Families and schools play a fundamental role in preventing crime, yet their effectiveness is waning. That is the key message of this year's white paper on crime. Crime is a mirror of a nation's social condition, and, simply put, Japanese society is sick.
The underlying trend is that crime is not only increasing but also becoming more violent. The list of violent crimes, already lengthy, is growing longer. They include, according to the report, murder, robbery, bodily injury, intimidation, extortion, rape, sexual molestation, burglary and vandalism.
What is particularly worrying about these incidents is, first, that crime is increasingly committed by ordinary citizens with no police record. Until the late 1990s, investigators say, the arrest of "usual suspects" -- those with a criminal record -- often led to the resolution of other cases. Now the nationwide proliferation of crime, they say, is making arrests more difficult than before. The social fabric of communities is breaking apart.