Number of crimes by foreign visitors down for 3rd year

Friday 27th February, 06:42 AM JST

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Scrote at 10:56 AM JST - 27th February

The figures are for non-Japanese visitors, excluding permanent residents, i.e. including residents on time-limited visas.

The breakdown of the figures doesn't quite add up: Chinese and Korean people account for 6459 crimes out of 31280 (20.6%), yet they make up 55% of the non-Japanese population. Whose nationals are committing the rest of the crimes?
dreamdrifter at 10:56 AM JST - 27th February

@johnnyboy73, do you still have that link? Thanks!

Also just wondering - does the breakdown exclude permanent residents? Because that may account for the low number of crime attributed to Koreans, most of whom have special permanent resident status.
Azrael at 11:12 AM JST - 27th February

This percentages are meaningless without the percentage they represent into the whole number of crime cases detected in Japan over the same period. What may be foreign crime in Japan, like a 1.0% of the whole? I'd like to know.
brotokyo at 11:23 AM JST - 27th February

buddha4brains, I agree that the math seemed fuzzy at first, but after rereading the Chinese % is figured from this statement: "number of foreign criminals, excluding permanent residents, also dropped in 2008 for a third straight year to 13,872" and this statement: "Chinese people accounted for 35% of the detected crimes, or 4,856." thus 4856 divided by 13872 = 35% Confusing for sure, but as I reread, I see the total number of crimes vs the total number of criminals works out to approx 2.25 crimes committed per criminal
Disillusioned at 12:26 PM JST - 27th February

This is so inconclusive! How do these stats compare with the actual number of foreigners in Japan over that three year period?
dennis0bauer at 12:44 PM JST - 27th February

Wel the fingerprinting is working ain't it?
whyamiinjapan at 01:00 PM JST - 27th February

dennisObauer. Too some degree. I can't help cringing when they lump all foreigners into one group. It's nice that they broke some of the statistics down into groups. Why don't they say "Crime is down" and then point out that so many South Bavarians, so many Klingons, etc. were arrested.
deadhippo at 02:36 PM JST - 27th February

Here is a link to the 2007 figures. It is in a pdf file. http://www.npa.go.jp/english/seisaku5/20081008.pdf
ashika1009 at 05:32 PM JST - 27th February

Most crime in Japan is committed by the Japanese themselves.An obvious point, but one of which the Japanese should remind themselves.That this is worth pointing out in modern day Japan (as in 2009 Feb. 29) speaks volumes about the Japanese outlook (regarding foreigners). I hasten to add that I am a supporter of Japan and a long term resident. I like the place.
sharky1 at 07:49 PM JST - 27th February

I hope the mayor of Okinawa City is paying attention to the statistics!
ptolemy at 08:13 PM JST - 27th February

Wonder why the Japanese media hasn't covered this yet? Hmmmmmm....
usaexpat at 01:12 AM JST - 28th February

Crimes committed by foreigners are down because fewer foreigners are coming. Now let's see what the overall crime statistics look like. I'll bet there's a large increase in homegrown crime.
dreamdrifter at 03:26 AM JST - 28th February

@usaexpat

Don't believe the sensationalist media - crime rate in Japan has been on a year-on-year decrease for many years.
Nessie at 06:57 PM JST - 2nd March

Any crime report that singles out foreigners should state whether the crime rate (i.e., the number of crimes per thousand people in the group) is higher or lower than for the non-foreigner group.
the_sicilian at 07:45 PM JST - 4th March

Sharky, the mayor of Okinawa City has nothing to fear. Given the sheer amount of young American servicemen and women, the crime rate is very low, and well under the percentage of Okinawans that are committing crimes.

Besides, she should worry more about the yaks and the dwindling cement hell cityscape she has. Lots of small businesses, no parking, congested roads, and people leaving for other areas.

Ciao