In Japan, elderly women are behind a surge in thefts amid a ‘grey crime wave’
- Police are seeing a surge in offences by the elderly, even as Japan reports its lowest number of crimes in 17 years
- According to one expert, loneliness and boredom may be driving up geriatric crime in a country where one in four people are aged 65 and above
According to figures released on Tuesday by the Justice Ministry in its annual white paper on crime statistics and trends, the number of arrests in Japan has been steadily declining over the past 17 years, though the “grey crime” trend is a significant outlier.
Last year, arrests fell to a record low of 192,607, and there were 748,559 crimes reported, the lowest since 1945.
While theft cases made up less than half the total offences reported, they accounted for 70 per cent of arrests of people aged 70 or older. And of the 42,463 elderly people who were arrested, one-third were women aged 65 or older – and nine in 10 of the women were detained for shoplifting or theft.
Shinichi Ishizuka, a law professor and director of the Criminology Research Centre at Kyoto’s Ryukoku University, said there were a number of contributing factors behind the rising number of crimes committed by retirees, but for many it was little more than a cry for attention.
“A lot of these cases are old people whose husband or wife has died so they live by themselves, their children have moved out, married, had children and built their own lives, so they do not see them very often,” he said.
“So, to put it simply, they used to lead busy and fulfilling lives, but all of a sudden they have nothing to keep them occupied any more. They are isolated, they are often depressed and, for some, this is a way of getting attention.”