The police data recorded 601,389 incidents of criminal activity in Japan last year, a 5.9 per cent increase from 2021. Meanwhile, the number of queries on domestic violence and suspected child abuse cases were higher than ever before.
Rising Criminal Activity: A Look at the Number of Murders in Japan in 2022
According to a survey by the National Police Agency, most people (67.1%) believe that Japan’s public safety is not as good as it used to be in the last decade. The death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, along with other recent stabbing reports has caused alarm and led to a spike in crimes.
5,000 individuals aged 15 and above responded to the survey saying that random killings, fraud through deception and child abuse were always in their minds.
The public sentiment toward safety has taken a severe hit ever since the triple-stabbing incident near the University of Tokyo in January last year, followed by another assault in Shibuya where a woman and her daughter were attacked by a female assailant in August same year. There have been outbreaks of violence reported on or near public transportation sites too and one of them was the horrific Tokyo train attack on Halloween night 2021 that left 17 people injured being a prime example.
Crime rates began to increase steadily after the government relaxed its COVID-19-related measures.
Incidents of ransomware cyber-attacks against companies and organizations skyrocketed by 57.5%, while cases of illegal money transfer utilizing online fraud also increased for the first time in three years to 1,131.
