For burglars, Japan's a steal

For burglars, Japan's a steal / Jewelers slow to beef up security despite recent daring Ginza heist

The senior officer of the Metropolitan Police Department could scarcely believe his ears. "We've found a large number of watches in packages sent from Japan," a Hong Kong police official said on the other end of the line on Jan. 6. "I wonder if they're the watches stolen from Tenshodo."

Tokyo police had suspected Chinese burglars were behind the daring Jan. 2 heist at Tenshodo, a jewelry shop in the posh Ginza district. The modus operandi--smashing a hole through an exterior wall to gain access--bore the hallmarks of a Chinese burglary ring.

The report that many of the luxury watches, which were worth an estimated total of 250 million yen, had been found was a lucky break for the MPD. Most goods pinched in the past by these rings have remained unrecovered.

http://www.yomiuri.c...201TDY03103.htm

I suppose in a country with an historically low rate of almost all crime, having to face up to it and protecting yourself against it may come a little harder than it does for people in places where crime is fairly commonplace.

Oh, big circle boys?

Uncle Gweilo, on 01 February 2010 - 07:11 PM, said:

It is true that the crime rate in Japan is low, it is about 1:20 compared with USA.

However USA is a wide country and any race, any kind of person you can imagine you will find there, while Japan is located on islands and the big majority are native Japanese, 98 percent. This makes people more confident to each other.

Many shops dealing with jewelry, antique, art, etc. in Japan do have a security system with cameras installed and are paying some private company to check their shop every 2 hours or so during nighttime. There is much more police during night in the streets than in Europe or USA, about 5:1.

It is not that easy to break into such a jewelry shop during night in the center of Tokyo, only professional criminals can do that.

Yes, much what is stolen is taken out of Japan for sale overseas. Everybody knows this. However, this does not mean that all these criminals are from China or Philippines etc. - frequently Japanese gangsters are co-operating. There are Japanese criminals of course, too.

Japanese gangsters are known for their high profitable activity... gambling, smuggle, prostitution, dealing with alcohol and guns, protection money from bars and sex-clubs etc. etc. - Yes, and also dealing with jewelry, fake money etc. etc.

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What Japanese gangsters, youth gangs etc. are never doing however and what makes them different from Western criminals, is the fact, that they rarely attack people, who are not related to them.

There is no hooligan activity like smashing windows or painting slurs on cars and walls or beating up unknown people in the street. -

Japanese are somewhat profit orientated, criminals are not an exception - to be a hooligan does not bring you any money, and therefore there are no hooligans in Japan. Taxi driving is safe during night, nobody will attack a taxi-driver for this little money he carries with him. Child mistreatment is also rare...

After living over 30 years here in Japan, I think the risk to become a victim of a violent crime for me as a Western foreigner is almost zero.

I'm being forced to examine the UK at the moment and I have to admit I'm suffering from a significant reverse culture shock this week. One of the things that makes stark comparison with my home in Thailand is the fact that in many, if not most, UK inner city areas, if you walk around some housing estate, the sort with tower blocks that are so bleak, they really do resemble Soviet era housing blocks... and you're wearing a suit, you are at a significant risk of being robbed, or getting 'egged' i.e. people will throw eggs at you, simply because you look out of place there and aren't wearing a hoodie.

Conversely, the opposite effect can be observed in Thailand. I suspect the same applies in Japan, but for slightly differing reasons.