No nation is immune to crime. Some countries have a higher crime rate than others. The United States is known for its high crime rate and perceived by foreigners as a dangerous place, particularly in certain urban areas. On the other hand, Japan’s crime rate is low and many believe it is a safe place to live and visit.

But, the Japan Times recently conducted a poll, and the results show that 55.9% of Japanese don’t feel safe anymore. The article claims that in an attempt to portray its nation in the most favorable light, the government underreports crime by 60%. Even though crimes are going up in Japan, arrests are going down. Statistics compiled by Stanford University revealed the following: in 1984, 1,588,693 crimes were reported while arrests totaled 1,002,923. But in 2004 2,562,767 crimes were reported and only 667,620 arrests occurred.

Continuing to overlook the ugly reality of a worsening crime problem could lead Japan down a dangerous path. Particularly disturbing is the explosion of juvenile crime. Even elementary students have been involved in stabbings and assaults, plus there has been an upsurge in youthful vandalism. Teachers have come to fear their own students just like in some schools in the U.S., while Japanese parents seem oblivious to what is happening to their children.

Children have suffered from a changing lifestyle in Japan. Mothers and fathers work until late in the evening so the children go without parental supervision. The mass entertainment industry produces animation, comic books, computer games, internet sites, and story books targeted to young people and filled with sex and violence. It should not come as a surprise that some young people have been adversely affected by all of this. Tsutomi Myazaki read disturbing story books; and, from 1988-89, he mutilated and killed four girls ages four to seven. He raped their corpses, ate them and took pictures. He mailed body parts and pictures to victims’ families.

Other men have followed in his footsteps. On Nov. 22, 2005 a strangled body of a seven year-old girl was found inside a cardboard box at a vacant lot in Hiroshima’s Akiku. Jose Manuel Yake, a Peruvian-Japanese, confessed. He claimed to be possessed by the devil. Two weeks later, an unknown assailant stabbed a seven year-old girl to death in the forest of Ibaraki Prefecture. On Dec. 10, 2005 a cram school teacher killed Sayano Horimoto, one of his twelve year-old students.

Criminal syndicates also have flourished in Japanese society the most through their tactics of extortion, gambling, prostitution, guns, drugs, kickbacks from the real estate/construction industry, counterfeiting, protection rackets, people and goods smuggling, and money laundering. Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest Japanese gang, claims 40,000 members. All gang members known as yakuza total about 87,000. Lately, Russian, Chinese and North Korean gangs invaded their territory leading to shootouts.

Japan no longer is a nation of tranquility. In the 1980s’, Japan enjoyed a booming economy which many claimed would cause it to overtake the U.S. economy. That didn’t happen as the Japanese economy collapsed in the 1990s.