In this subsection, among special law offenses excluding those which will be described in later sections, such as traffic offenses ( Section 3 of this Chapter ), drug offenses ( Section 4 of this Chapter ), financial and economic offenses ( Section 5 of this Chapter ), election-related offenses ( Section 6 of this Chapter ), and offenses by foreign nationals ( Chapter 2, Section 2 ), we will examine trends in violations of the following laws, for which the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices has been relatively numerous, such as the Minor Offenses Law, Firearms and Swords Control Law, Horse Racing Law$B<'(BBicycle Racing Law$B<'(BMotorboat Racing Law, Adult Entertainment Law, Anti-Prostitution Law, Wastes Disposal Law, and Marine Pollution Prevention Law. Then, we will also examine trends in the offenses of which victims are children under 18 years old and for which a new law was established in recent years, and trends in Industrial Safety and Health Law violations and Labor Standards Law violations (see Appendix 1-4 ).
   Fig. 1-1-2-3 shows the trends in the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for violations of the Minor Offenses Law, Firearms and Swords Control Law, Anti-Prostitution Law, Adult Entertainment Law, Horse Racing Law$B<'(BBicycle Racing Law$B<'(BMotorboat Racing Law, Wastes Disposal Law, and Marine Pollution Prevention Law over the last decade. According to this information, it can be pointed out that violations of the Minor Offenses Law, Firearms and Swords Control Law, and Wastes Disposal Law have been on a rising trend.
  Regarding Wastes Disposal Law violations, the Law for Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (what is termed the Home Appliance Recycling Law, Law No. 97, 1998), which stipulates a switch from free home appliances collection to a paid service, came into force in April 2001. After the enforcement, some have already been cleared for illegal waste-disposal offenses in order to escape disposal expenses (Source: National Police Agency. See Appendix 1-4 ).
   Fig. 1-1-2-4 shows the trends in the numbers of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for violations of the Child Welfare Law, Law against Child Prostitution and Pornography, and the Juveniles Protection Ordinance over the last decade, which, in 2001, increased from the previous year.
   Fig. 1-1-2-5 shows the trends in the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for Industrial Safety and Health Law violations and Labor Standards Law violations for the last 10 years.
  Since 1997, the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for Industrial Safety and Health Law violations has maintained a decreasing trend, but, on the contrary, that for Labor Standards Law violations has been on an increasing trend since 1999.
  The Anti-Stalking Law (Law No. 81, 2000) came into force in November 2000. The number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for Anti-Stalking Law violations was 18 in 2000, increasing to 126 in 2001 (Source: Annual Report of Statistics on Prosecution).
  The Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims (Law No. 31, 2001) was promulgated on April 13, 2001, and came into force between October 2001 and April 2002. The Law is intended to provide redress to victims of spousal violence that tends to be unobvious, with the aim of realizing gender equality. In order to prevent further damage to victims in cases where there is a high possibility that they will repeatedly suffer serious damage to their lives and bodies by further spousal violence, the Law established a regulation under which a restraining order might be issued against the said spouse, prohibiting the wrongdoers from going near the victim for 6 months, or ordering them to move out of the home they share with the victim for 2 weeks. Moreover, the Law imposes on a violator some punishments including imprisonment with labor. The number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for violations of the Law was 2 in 2001 (Source: Annual Report of Statistics on Prosecution).

Fig. 1-1-2-3 Trends in the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for special law offenses (1992-2001)

Fig. 1-1-2-4 Trends in the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for special law offenses of which victims are children under 18 years old (1992-2001)

Fig. 1-1-2-5 Trends in the number of persons newly received by public prosecutors offices for special law offenses of Industrial Safety and Health Law and Labor Standards Law (1992-2001)

Explanation of terms

---

Persons newly received by public prosecutors offices:
Persons newly received by public prosecutors offices refers to persons reported or directly received by public prosecutors and persons referred by judicial police officers (including special judicial police officers and inspectors of the National Tax Agency) during the year when a survey for this report was conducted (Source: Annual Report of Statistics on Prosecution).