Section 2 Trends in Offenses
1 Penal code offenses
Fig. 3-1-2-1 shows the numbers of cases and persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting and other foreign nationals (from 1980). The number of cleared cases for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting foreign nationals exceeded that by other foreign nationals from 1993. In recent years, the number started to increase sharply from 2002, reaching a record high in 2005, but then started to decrease and was 20,561 in 2009 (down 11.4% from the previous year). The number of visiting foreign nationals cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses reached a record high in 2004, but then started to decrease, and was 7,190 in 2009, approximately at the same level as the previous year (up 0.6% from the previous year). In accord with the increase/decrease in the number of cleared cases committed by visiting foreign nationals, the number of cleared cases for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by foreign nationals, including other foreign nationals, reached a record high in 2005 at 43,622, but then started to decrease from 2006 and was 30,569 in 2009 (down 11.7% from the previous year). The number of foreign nationals cleared increased from 1999, reaching a record high in 2005 at 14,786, but then started to decrease from 2006 and was 12,365 in 2009 (down 2.0% (id.)) (See Appendix 3-1). Foreign nationals accounted for 3.7% of the total number (332,888) of persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses in 2009.
Fig. 3-1-2-1 Numbers of cases and persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by foreign nationals (1980-2009)
The percent distribution of cleared cases for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting foreign nationals by type of offense in 2009 is as shown in Fig. 3-1-2-2, and theft accounted for the overwhelming majority at 80.0% (the number of cleared cases was much larger than that of persons cleared probably because the percentage of theft was high, which means that many persons were cleared in multiple cases).
Fig. 3-1-2-2 Percent distribution of cleared cases for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting foreign nationals by type of offense (2009)
Fig. 3-1-2-3 shows the number of cleared cases for theft, robbery, and injury/assault, etc. committed by visiting foreign nationals over the last 10 years. The number of cleared cases for theft reached a record high in 2005, but then started to decrease from 2006, and was 16,450 (down 14.6% from the previous year) in 2009. The number of cleared cases for injury/assault has been increasing significantly over recent years, and the number was approximately 1.7 times larger in 2009 than in 2000 (3.1 times larger than in 1999).
Fig. 3-1-2-3 Number of cleared cases for theft, etc. committed by visiting foreign nationals (2000-2009)
