No country for old men: Japanese prisons struggling to cope with geriatric crime wave
The rise in senior crime is attributed to increased economic hardship, an ageing population, and pure greed, according to a 2013 report by the National Police Agency
Every day is the same. He wakes at 6.45am, eats breakfast 20 minutes later and reports for work at 8 o’clock sharp. But this isn’t your typical Japanese salaryman. This man is in his 80s and he is in prison – a cage of structure and certainty that he is hesitant to ever leave.
“I don’t know what kind of life I should lead after I get out. I’ll be worried about my health and financial situation once I leave,” the inmate said, on condition of anonymity from Tokyo’s Fuchu Prison, where he is serving time for attempted theft.
His case is not unique: Japan is in the midst of a geriatric crime wave such that its prisons increasingly look like nursing homes. The situation has become so dire the government approved a plan to deploy nursing care staff to about half of Japan’s 70 prisons from April, allocating a budget of 58 million yen (US$495,000).
In 2015, almost 20 per cent of those who were either arrested or interrogated by police were aged 65 or older – up from 5.8 per cent in 2000, according to the National Police Agency. Most are imprisoned for petty crime such as shoplifting and theft.
I don’t know what kind of life I should lead after I get out. I’ll be worried about my health and financial situation once I leave
The rise in senior crime is attributed to increased economic hardship, an ageing population, and pure greed, according to a 2013 report by the National Police Agency.
