Homicide and Robbery Rates Extremely Low in Japan

Japan has a reputation for a high level of public safety and the statistics in the 2020 White Paper on Crime published by the Ministry of Justice numerically substantiate this.

Looking at crime trends worldwide, in 2017 there were 307 homicides in Japan. In contrast, there were more than 800 each in France, Germany, and Britain, while the United States had 17,284 homicides, a staggering 56 times as many as Japan. The homicide rate per 100,000 people was 5.3 in the United States, 1.3 in France, 1.2 in Britain, and 1.0 in Germany, while it was only 0.2 in Japan.

These statistics are based on the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. That survey summarizes statistics from 2013 to 2017 for five major countries, including Japan, and takes into account homicide, robbery, theft, and sexual violence cases, all of which are important in assessing crime trends.

The most recent robbery rate in Japan was 1.8 per 100,000 people, revealing a huge gap with France (154.3), Germany (47.0), Britain (118.7), and the United States (98.6). (Data on Japan is for 2016. Data on all other countries is for 2017.)

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)