Abstract
Japan has become an aged society, in which 26.7% among all population is old persons of 65 years old and over. Therefore, the topic on the elderly victimization has become a big social problem. However, there are not data enough to analyze this topic in detail. In this paper the author will analyze the change in the situation of old people. Then, crimes committed by old people are briefly analyzed. The topic of the main analysis is the elderly victimization by crimes. The author uses data from the White Paper on Highly Aged Society in 2015 and newspaper articles as the major sources of information. The elderly victimization by accidents and disasters is also analyzed.
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Notes
- 1.
Many male Koreans were taken to Japan to work as a slave for such industry as mining and construction.
- 2.
Riesman, Glazer, and Denny (1973) pointed out that the total population was stable for a long time before the Industrial Revolution owing to the high rates of birth and death. At that time the social character of traditional direction was prevalent. By the revolution the population explosion occurred because the rate of death declined owing to improvement of health conditions. However, in advanced Western countries the total population is gradually declining because people begin to enjoy their private life with no child or a few children.
- 3.
In a grand house of a rich family, not only family members but also servants and maids lived together.
- 4.
The eldest son was also respected as a successor of the family head.
- 5.
We witnessed often that the eldest woman bullied her daughter-in-law.
- 6.
Riesman et al. (1973, p. 36) pointed out that “Grandmothers as authorities are almost as obsolete as governesses. There is no room for them in the modern apartment, nor can they, any more than the children themselves, find a useful economic role.”
- 7.
The conformity of people with inner-directedness is insured by their tendency to acquire an internalized set of goals early in their life.
- 8.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun on October 1, 2015, reported about a shoplifting by a man of 87 years old who lived richly with his spouse. As he suffered from senile dementia, he continued committing a shoplifting of trivial goods such as stationeries and postcards at stores for 10 years. At the criminal court he was imposed a fine twice. However, the imposition of a fine was in vain to stop his shoplifting.
- 9.
As this law did not prescribe its retroactive effects, participants in the movement could not receive any compensation money from the government.
- 10.
In this village the 63 year old murderer is the youngest among all fourteen villagers.
- 11.
Japanese police are expected to work as a mediator for solving a conflict between residents in the community.
- 12.
Article 41 of Penal Code prescribes that an offense committed by a person of under 14 years old shall not be punished as a criminal.
- 13.
One reason why women are ill-treated more frequently, men are more often taken care of their spouse.
- 14.
This data was collected on September 15, 2016.
- 15.
The percentage in the age group of over 84 years old who were victimized declined because the total population belongs to this age group decreased.
- 16.
The police have activated a campaign for an old people not to remit money immediately after receiving a telephone call. The officer in a bank asks an old person about the reason why he/she draws a large amount of money from her/his account. The bank establishes the limit of the maximum remittable money from ATM.
- 17.
Previously, some juvenile delinquents snatched a purse from an old woman. However, such juveniles have decreased as they become a conformist owing to being grown under overprotection by their parents and persons surrounding them. Recently, more and more juveniles are involved in Furikome Fraud by swindler’s solicitation. Although they do so by the motivation of earning the small amount of extra money, they are severely sanctioned if they are arrested.
- 18.
In Japan the technology by the use of a computer has developed. Therefore, most of people of under 75 years old can use a computer and a smartphone.
- 19.
As old persons share the social character of “inner-direction,” they have psychological resistance against committing a crime. However, if this social character declines, more and more old poor persons would want to live in a prison instead of a poor apartment.
- 20.
To maintain the low rate of interest in government bonds, Bank of Japan continues to buy a lot of government bond at the bond market. In addition, to maintain high price of stocks, Bank of Japan continues to buy a lot of stocks. We witness the dysfunction at both the bond market and the stock market by these continual purchases.
- 21.
Japan has the highest deficits in the government finances among all advanced countries.
- 22.
If old-aged persons become casino addicts, they would become a homeless or a livelihood protection recipient. If the State of Japan continues to provide the current amount of livelihood protection to them, it would become bankrupt.
- 23.
Criminalization against traffic offenders has also contributed to the decrease in traffic accidents (Yokoyama, 2015).
- 24.
The total number of persons of 65 years old and over killed by an automobile traffic accident amounted to 2138 in 2016, which was not highest in our history.
- 25.
This data exclude the case of persons committing a suicide by setting fire.
References
Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. (2016). White paper on highly aged society in 2015 [written in Japanese]. Retrieved July 21, 2017, from http://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2017/zenbun/29pdf_index.html
Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice. (2016). White Paper on Crime in 2016 [written in Japanese].
Riesman, D., Glazer, N., & Denny, R. (1973). The Lonely Crowd—A study of the Changing American character, Abridged edition with a 1969 preface. London: New Haven/Yale University Press. The original book was published in 1950.
Yokoyama, M. (2014). Increase in crimes committed in Japan by elderly people and the way they are treated in criminal justice. In E. W. Plywaczewski (Ed.), Current problems of the penal law and the criminology No. 6 (pp. 790–803). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo C. H. Beck.
Yokoyama, M. (2015). Historical analysis of criminalization against traffic offenders in Japan. In Global security-public security and disaster response (pp. 21–43). Hemer: Home Security UG.
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Yokoyama, M. (2016b). Cooperative policing for coping with crisis situation-lessons from the Japanese police response to a natural disaster on March 11, 2011. In P. C. Kratcoski & M. Edelbacher (Eds.), Collaborative policing-police, academics, professionals, and communities working together for education, training and program implementation (pp. 97–118). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
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Yokoyama, M. (2018). Elderly Victimization in Aging Japan. In: Kratcoski, P., Edelbacher, M. (eds) Perspectives on Elderly Crime and Victimization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72682-3_8
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