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A comment on As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (2017). Parent comment

Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by socialdemocrat on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @09:02AM (#20574054)
I think you are post rationalizing. Places like Norway, where I live have far more chill police and would let smaller things slide. Yet Norway is about as safe as Japan.

Most difference between crime in Norway and Japan is more likely down to Norway having much larger immigrant population from poorer countries.

I think your attitude easily ends up excusing police states. Japanese justice system is highly questionable. Almost nobody ever gets acquitted in the justice system, and prison is rather harsh. Norway gets away with low crime despite (or because of) probably the worlds most liberal prison system.

Don't get me wrong. I admire a lot about Japan, but I think you easily fall into the trap of thinking that everything great about Japan is directly the result of something bad.

I would argue more important factor causing law crime in Japan is much the same as in Nordic countries. Low levels of inequality. How people are socialized. Stricter gun laws.

And let us not forget that the average age is high in Japan. Older people commit a lot less crime.

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by steeleduncan on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @10:41AM (#20574758)
> Yet Norway is about as safe as Japan

Norway was has a murder rate 2.5x that of Japan[1]. Norway is considerably less safe than Japan, albeit still very safe by global standards.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by nosuchuser2 on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @11:24AM (#20575129)
Japan's official murder rate is widely believed to be significantly underreported.
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by CountSessine on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @11:40AM (#20575310)
<citation required>
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by CountSessine on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @03:47PM (#20577673)
https://www.tokyoreview.net/2017/08/myth-japans-bored-police.... https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2017/06/sex-crimes-japan-go-u.... https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/07/31/national/crime-.... Japan also has a huge issue with people admitting to crimes they did not commit. https://www.france24.com/en/20181207-japan-justice-99-system.... https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20810572*

@nosuchuser2 said,

"Japan's official murder rate is widely believed to be significantly underreported"

in response to someone noting that Norway's murder rate is 2.5x Japan's murder rate.

None of the articles you linked to even mentions an elevated or misreported murder rate. Instead you linked to articles suggesting that sex crimes are underreported. Sex crimes are actually underreported in just about every industrialized country, US included.

Given that the official murder statistics are what they are, citation is still required

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by nihonde on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @09:06AM (#20574088)
Japan polices itself so that the police generally don’t have to. I don’t know about Norway, so I won’t comment. I can tell you it’s easy to avoid trouble with the state in Japan. Your biggest worry is going to be an older person who enforces social norms, which is exactly what got GP here.
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by sithadmin on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @09:15AM (#20574151)
>And let us not forget that the average age is high in Japan. Older people commit a lot less crime.

Japan has actually been seeing a rise in crime among the elderly population lately: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/11/22/500040363/...

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by d0100 on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @10:14AM (#20574574)
> Stricter gun laws.

In a country of literal ninjas and samurais, this is the most inconsequential of all the reasons you gave.

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by nostalgk on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @10:21AM (#20574622)
Pretty sure the average citizen doesn't carry the Daishō any longer these days. Unless they're all actually ninjas with concealed weapons.
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by tyrust on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @10:27AM (#20574657)
I assume you're joking, but this is sorta racist and also dismissive of the value of stricter gun regulations.
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by albatruss on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @03:28PM (#20577418)
The value of stricter gun regulations is actually minimal - we already have the effective ones in place. Take a look at the studies for yourself, e.g.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309755075_Does_Gun_...

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by tyrust on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @04:02PM (#20577868)
Sorry I don't really have time to get into this.

I looked very briefly at that study. It compares US cities to other US cities using data from 1990. I would be more interested in how the US stacks up against other countries that don't have to act within the limitations of the Second Amendment. More recent data would probably be valuable as well.

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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by d0100 on Thursday August 01, 2019 @06:13AM (#20582528)
It is dismissive of stricter gun regulations, but not at all racist. Take off your racist-colored glasses and just look at history.
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Re:As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do (... by tyrust on Thursday August 01, 2019 @06:06PM (#20588826)
It is racist. It is making generalizations of people in an entire country based on old history. It would be like calling the US a country of literal cowboys.
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