The most experienced pair of inmates at Osaka Prison work on a thick carpet as big as a king-size bed.
(File photo from Japan Times, March 15, 2003).
Police stats, white paper highlight growing problem
TOKYO (Yomiuri Weekly), May 14-21, 2006:
A 65-year-old man in Tokyo strangles his wife after she tells him he's "not a man."
Around the same time, a 68-year-old man in Osaka is arrested for mugging a number of high-school students.
When a convenience store employee in the city of Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture, reminds a 70-year-old customer that he's spending an inordinate amount of time reading but not buying the store's magazines, the old man responds by going out to the parking lot where he pulls a chain-saw out of his car trunk. He fires it up, re-enters the store and brandishes it at the terrified store employee.
These recent incidents, says Yomiuri Weekly, are part of a rapidly growing trend of crime committed by the elderly. While overall crime has been on the rise in recent years in Japan, offenses committed by senior citizens have seen a particularly sharp increase.
According to the National Police Agency, last year was the first time on record that the number of suspects aged 65 and older exceeded 10 percent of total arrests, traffic violations excluded. In many Western countries, by comparison, the rate among the same age group is around 3 percent.
What's more, a government white paper on crime patterns reveals a sharp and consistent rise in the number of these perpetrators since 1990. The 42,108 arrests of senior citizens last year is around 600 percent higher than the figure 15 years earlier. Prominent among the crimes committed are murder and theft.
What's making so many old people resort to crime? Yomiuri Weekly sums it up in two words: alienation and anger.
The first reason is easy to fathom for anyone familiar with Japan's social problems. Extended families and rural communities are breaking down, leaving more and more old people living alone or at least without family nearby. These seniors tend to be lonely, bored and restless.
"We've had lots of cases where people are shoplifting out of a sense of alienation and loneliness," says Akira Onami, who heads a law enforcement committee in the rural city of Esashi, Iwate Prefecture, which is experiencing a rash of crime by the elderly. "It's the men in particular. They don't have tea circles like women do. They've got no place to go and no one to talk with."
As for the anger, that often stems from financial troubles. As the nation's graying demographics continue to strain the social-welfare system, pension payments barely cover living costs, while personal medical expenses continue to rise.
The man wielding the chain-saw told police he was simply "irritated" and that he had decided to let loose out of a sense of frustration.
The government, meanwhile, wants more specific answers. This year, it earmarked 1.5 million yen for the Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice to learn the particular motives of elderly criminals. Afterward, the institute will compile a report suggesting ways of dealing with a problem that's expected to grow even more serious in the years ahead.
By Geoff Botting
May 15, 2006
JAPAN: Seniors Going on Crime Spree
The most experienced pair of inmates at Osaka Prison work on a thick carpet as big as a king-size bed.
(File photo from Japan Times, March 15, 2003).
Police stats, white paper highlight growing problem
TOKYO (Yomiuri Weekly), May 14-21, 2006:
A 65-year-old man in Tokyo strangles his wife after she tells him he's "not a man."
Around the same time, a 68-year-old man in Osaka is arrested for mugging a number of high-school students.
When a convenience store employee in the city of Bando, Ibaraki Prefecture, reminds a 70-year-old customer that he's spending an inordinate amount of time reading but not buying the store's magazines, the old man responds by going out to the parking lot where he pulls a chain-saw out of his car trunk. He fires it up, re-enters the store and brandishes it at the terrified store employee.
These recent incidents, says Yomiuri Weekly, are part of a rapidly growing trend of crime committed by the elderly. While overall crime has been on the rise in recent years in Japan, offenses committed by senior citizens have seen a particularly sharp increase.
According to the National Police Agency, last year was the first time on record that the number of suspects aged 65 and older exceeded 10 percent of total arrests, traffic violations excluded. In many Western countries, by comparison, the rate among the same age group is around 3 percent.
What's more, a government white paper on crime patterns reveals a sharp and consistent rise in the number of these perpetrators since 1990. The 42,108 arrests of senior citizens last year is around 600 percent higher than the figure 15 years earlier. Prominent among the crimes committed are murder and theft.
What's making so many old people resort to crime? Yomiuri Weekly sums it up in two words: alienation and anger.
The first reason is easy to fathom for anyone familiar with Japan's social problems. Extended families and rural communities are breaking down, leaving more and more old people living alone or at least without family nearby. These seniors tend to be lonely, bored and restless.
"We've had lots of cases where people are shoplifting out of a sense of alienation and loneliness," says Akira Onami, who heads a law enforcement committee in the rural city of Esashi, Iwate Prefecture, which is experiencing a rash of crime by the elderly. "It's the men in particular. They don't have tea circles like women do. They've got no place to go and no one to talk with."
As for the anger, that often stems from financial troubles. As the nation's graying demographics continue to strain the social-welfare system, pension payments barely cover living costs, while personal medical expenses continue to rise.
The man wielding the chain-saw told police he was simply "irritated" and that he had decided to let loose out of a sense of frustration.
The government, meanwhile, wants more specific answers. This year, it earmarked 1.5 million yen for the Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice to learn the particular motives of elderly criminals. Afterward, the institute will compile a report suggesting ways of dealing with a problem that's expected to grow even more serious in the years ahead.
By Geoff Botting
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