[/floatl]Yomiuri: Crime down nationwide
Japan is safer now than it was in 2002, when crime hit a record high, according to a study. The Japan Urban Security Research Institute calculated municipal crime figures by looking at the number of crimes per 1,000 people in 2006. It then drew up a colored map featuring seven different crime levels, with red indicating a high crime rate and green indicating a low crime rate. Compared with a map based on figures for 2002, the map for 2006 has significantly fewer areas colored red, indicating fewer municipalities with a high crime rate...According to the National Police Agency, about 2.05 million crimes were reported across the country last year--a 28 percent decline from 2002, when 2.85 million cases were reported...Even though the trend in which urban areas have high crime rates and rural areas have low rates continued, rates in both areas dropped by about one-third. Tokyo Metropolitan University Prof. Masahide Maeda, who participated in the study, said: "Security has improved almost equally across the nation, regardless of area, because police and local governments have been bolstering security measures since 2002. That's the major reason"...Over the past four years bicycle thefts and thefts from cars have fallen by about 40 percent from nearly 1 million. Serious crime, such as murder and robbery, also dropped by 16 percent...more...
I'm surprised the Yomiuri didn't add a comment on how much faster crime would have fallen if it hadn't been for all the foreigners.
