Japan has long prided itself on its orderly society and low crime rates. But that image is being lost, as car thefts and home invasions increase, driven by the export market and people’s complacency.
At a seminar held in May on car theft, promoted by the Aichi City Council police, in central Japan, Haruto S., a man in his 50s listened attentively. Already had been targeted of these crimes for twice in the past.
One fine day in 2011 Haruto woke up, got ready and prepared for a day of work. When leaving home, he came across the disappearance of your cara much-loved Toyota Land Cruiser.
Four years later, one night in 2015, Haruto found a bicycle blocking the entrance to his house, making it difficult to open the door.
This time, his car was still there, but it had a big square hole on the bodywork. The internal wiring had been burned, requiring repairs in excess of 100,000 yen, around 500 euros.
According to provisional data from the National Police Agency, between January and June this year there were 3,821 vehicle thefts29.2% more than in the same period of the previous year.
Aichi City Hall, where Toyota is headquartered, recorded the highest number of cases: 639, one increase of 50.4% compared to the previous year. Saitama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, recorded 479 cases (up 14.6%) and Kanagawa 396 (up 66.4%).
Other municipalities also attended significant climbssuch as Shizuoka, Honda’s homeland, also in central Japan, with 165 cases (6.6 times more than before), and Nagano with 63 cases (a 2.9-fold increase).
As he explained to a senior Aichi police officer, the recent appreciation of carsboth in Japan and abroad, is driving these thefts.
O organized crime linked to car theft has become a large business, with specialized functions to surveil, steal, dismantle and resell the vehicles. Using a device called “CAN invader”, you can unlock the doors and start the engine in just a few minutes.
Many stolen cars end up in scrapyards, where they are dismantled and sent abroad in containers, then reconstituted for sale.
“Car theft leaves few traces and is a high return crimeas the value of the stolen goods is practically assured”, says the Aichi police officer. “Even when we manage to locate the vehicles, sometimes they are already were exported”.
The more security measures consumers take to protect their cars, the harder it becomes to steal a car. However, according to the police, of around 200 cases registered between January and March, more than 60% of victims they did not have multiple security measures.
The man who saw his car targeted twice just resorted to an alarm automobile. Now there are two surveillance cameras connected to the cell phone and starts Park the car with the front facing inward and the wheels turnedmaking it difficult to escape in reverse gear.
After the car, the house
As home invasions have also become a serious problem. Sakura K., a woman from a rural area of Aichi, around 40 years old, who had never thought about such strange things as “home security”, was in shock when her house was targeted twice in the same month.
The husband used to leave the work bag with a money bag in the living room, but one day, in mid-March, the money disappeared. There were no signs of forced entry nor was the house disturbed. About two weeks later, another 50 thousand yen disappeared from the same bag.
Police are investigating the case as a robbery. Sakura locked the sliding glass door at night, but often left it unlocked when I went out for short periods during the day.
Sakura was aware of the increase in robberies called “yami baito“, in which the authors are recruited onlinein the Tokyo metropolitan area, to perform “part-time jobs”, usually very well paid. But I thought that was a distant problem.
“I wasn’t very careful about safety,” he admitted. “I knew I should pay more attention, but how lived in a quiet area in the interiorI never felt real danger.”
Now the family always locks the doors and has installed cameras of video surveillance.
The provisional number of home robberies between January and June reached 8,898 cases, the highest value in the last five years for this period. Saitama topped the list of municipalities, with 959 cases, followed by Chiba (683), Ibaraki (672) and Aichi (665).
Many of these crimes involved unlocked doors or broken windowswith a risk of evolution towards “audacious heists”in which intruders attack and rob residents.
Sometimes robbers pretend to be plumbers or contractors to collect information about the composition of the family and the layout of the house.
“Com basic precautions, such as locking the doorsmany of these cases can be avoided”, highlights Masaki Takeuchihead of the community safety division of the Aichi police.
Takeuchi also recommends the use of alarms and window locksthe placement of noisy gravel next to the entranceslights with motion detector, surveillance cameras and security glass.
“If you encounter a robber, your life could be at risk,” warns Takeuchi. “THE combination of several prevention measures is more effective. Thinking about crime prevention should be part of our daily lives.”
