Security cameras to be installed in 15 residential areas in Japan

Thursday 25th June, 05:58 PM JST

TOKYO —

Police will install a network of security cameras at 15 residential areas in 14 out of the country’s 47 prefectures as part of nationwide crime-prevention efforts, the National Police Agency said Thursday. The police will entrust volunteer groups of residents to operate and manage shooting equipment and image data, agency officials said. The police plan to launch the first such residential network in Japan around January next year, they said. Currently the police have 363 security cameras in operation at bustling shopping and entertainment urban districts across the country. It will also be the first time for the police to entrust such management duties to residents groups.

The National Police Agency, coordinator of the nation’s prefectural police forces, said the police will discuss the details of operating the network with volunteer groups. The police ‘‘will help residents to secure safety by themselves,’’ one agency official said. The police agency has already earmarked 597 million yen in the government’s supplementary budget for the installation of the security camera network and for the consultations with residents groups. According to the police agency’s plan, a set of 25 cameras each will be installed mainly on streets used by children going to school. The 15 locations include those in such prefectural capitals as Otsu, Okayama, Hiroshima, Tokushima and Fukuoka. The 10 other areas are in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture; Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture; Toda, Saitama Prefecture; Higashiyamato and Musashimurayama, both suburban Tokyo; Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture; Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture; Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture; Iwade, Wakayama Prefecture; and Amami, Kagoshima Prefecture. However, no residents groups have so far been picked to take charge of the security network in some of the 15 places. Some citizens groups are critical of the plan, saying that the government intends to strengthen surveillance on residents. The police have told residents groups that they will put up notices that indicate the locations of security cameras. They have also pledged to use data collected only for the investigation of crimes and that they will help protect citizens’ privacy. Under the plan, video monitors and recorders will be installed in non-police facilities, such as community centers, and residents groups will check screens when children are walking to and from school. Yasuhiko Tajima, professor of journalism at Sophia University who heads a citizens group against surveillance society, accuses the government of trying to have residents keep watch on each other through the planned installation of security cameras. The Musashimurayama municipal government in western Tokyo said a city official was called in to a nearby police station and was asked to join the security camera network plan on June 11. The city government said it has yet to decide on the location for the camera installation or on a residents group which will operate and manage the security camera network.

Kyodo

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Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

pointofview at 09:54 PM JST - 25th June

Democracy at its best!
Foxie at 10:34 PM JST - 25th June

Sooner or later they will arrest you for sitting too long on a public toilet
zoechan at 11:03 PM JST - 25th June
Yasuhiko Tajima, professor of journalism at Sophia University who heads a citizens group against surveillance society, accuses the government of trying to have residents keep watch on each other through the planned installation of security cameras.
- I think my おばちゃん neighbours already know more about me than I do; what with eerily being out in the alley taking their hourly walk every time I leave my house, commenting on the fact I'm not at work (it was Golden Week!), and, best of all - going through my rubbish when I had just moved in and made the most heinous of mistakes: to put the wrong rubbish out on the wrong day. おばちゃん solution: why, take the wrong rubbish out of the bag, pack it up in a new bag, and deposit it on my door.
Why the need for cameras?!
zoechan at 11:04 PM JST - 25th June
Yasuhiko Tajima, professor of journalism at Sophia University who heads a citizens group against surveillance society, accuses the government of trying to have residents keep watch on each other through the planned installation of security cameras.
- I think my おばちゃん neighbours already know more about me than I do; what with eerily being out in the alley taking their hourly walk every time I leave my house, commenting on the fact I'm not at work (it was Golden Week!), and, best of all - going through my rubbish when I had just moved in and made the most heinous of mistakes: to put the wrong rubbish out on the wrong day. おばちゃん solution: why, take the wrong rubbish out of the bag, pack it up in a new bag, and deposit it on my door.
Why the need for cameras?!
smithinjapan at 11:41 PM JST - 25th June

I'd be more than happy if they started in the interrogation rooms, but alas we can't have everything, can we?
30061015 at 12:57 AM JST - 26th June

Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin
sharky1 at 04:50 AM JST - 26th June

Anybody with half a brain knows that security cameras don't prevent crime, they only record it. This is a move for the monitoring of citizens by the government, big brother plain and simple. On that note, it seems like the police want to record everything except for their own interrogations.
Icewind007 at 05:50 AM JST - 26th June

And goggle map is an invasion of privacy. this is what?

First thing that came to mind lol. I hear way too many complaints about google street from all over the world. I don't see how a single image of a public area can invade privacy... esp if they block out faces. I was actually caught mowing my lawn on google while in the US! Can't see my face well enough but I thought it was kinda funny 8p.

Personally I don't mind security cams as long as they remain in public places (ie, the streets). They probably won't help so much with crime as with the proof of the crime. However, overall, it's not going to prove useful. Although it would be funny if they were actually installing those fake cameras I see sometimes. They even follow people randomly to act like they are watching 8).
MeanRingo at 06:41 AM JST - 26th June

I hope the cops end up seeing just how much crime they are missing while taking the koban nap.
JeffLee at 07:35 AM JST - 26th June

The problem and danger is that the cameras and data are in the hands of civilians, not sanctioned law-enforcement authorities.

So the gov't wants us to spy on each other. What kind of society is this?
Disillusioned at 07:40 AM JST - 26th June

The police will entrust volunteer groups of residents to operate and manage shooting equipment and image data

Volunteer groups of residents??? Gimme a break!
bushlover at 09:29 AM JST - 26th June

All the complaints but if we didn't have that we wouldn't even have the knowledge of Lindsay's killer Takahashi. At least we knew what this jerk looked like just a day after it was known. So get off your whimpering high horses.
TheguyNextdoor at 10:23 AM JST - 26th June

********‘‘will help residents to secure safety by themselves,’’

Isn't this what our taxes pay for? Police to be patrolling and protecting.......now you put this responbility on residents, when something happens it will be the communities fault.
kanadamanada at 02:02 AM JST - 27th June

There are tons, absolutely TONS of security camers in downtown Sapporo. I've never seen such a high concentration in any other city.
Lamborghini at 04:42 PM JST - 30th June

Well Well Well Japan is becoming like ENGLAND the most watched country in the world. The UK has been doing this for years and the crime rate is still going through the roof, shootings and stabbing happening every day and thugs beating people on camera. It is nothing but a waste of money and time. Good thing is someone will get a nice video of my white ar*e on camera the next time the wife and I decided to go to the local park in the middle of the night to play about!