Almost 80% in Japan feel public safety worsened over past decade: survey

The proportion of people in Japan who believe public safety in the country has deteriorated over the past decade stood at 79.7%, according to a survey by the National Police Agency.

The figure increased by 3.1 percentage points year on year and has been rising since 2021, when the question was first included. The survey was conducted online in October last year.

As reasons for the deterioration, many respondents cited increases in the number ofore-ore sagi (it's me) fraud cases, in which perpetrators approach targets by pretending to be their relatives, and in personal data breaches resulting from unauthorized access.

The result apparently reflected a series of recent incidents, including fraud cases by perpetrators pretending to be police officers and cyberattacks on companies, along with increased media coverage of these issues.

Meanwhile, the survey also showed that a total of 60.3% of respondents said they thought or somewhat thought that public safety in Japan was good, up 3.9 points from the previous survey.

The improvement may reflect enhanced measures against and crackdowns ontokuryūanonymous and fluid criminal groups, as well as relative safety compared with overseas situations.

The survey covered people aged 15 or older nationwide and received responses from 5,000 individuals.

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