In this chapter, we will give an overview of crime trends in other countries based on official statistics obtained, in order to grasp the characteristics of crime trends in Japan.
  Four countries have been selected for comparison. They are the United States of America, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom(limited to England and Wales only;referred to in this chapter as"Great Britain(GB)"). With the unification of East and West Germany, crimes occurring in the former territories of the German Democratic Republic since 1991 are included in the total for Germany.
  The number of cases reported, the crime rate(=number of cases reported per 100,000 capita of population), and the clearance rate for major crimes(see Fig. I-19 Note 2 for types of offense included), homicide, and larceny are compared between Japan and the four countries.
  Of course, it would be inappropriate to judge crime trends simply from the crime rate and clearance rate for specific crimes. Moreover, the scope of what is considered a crime and the compositional definitions of crimes differ in Japan and the respective countries, while the methods of gathering statistics also vary. For these reasons, it is difficult to make accurate comparisons or studies. However, as well as gaining a general grasp of crime trends in the various countries, comparing statistical figures in Japan with those in other countries is considered beneficial in analyzing crime trends in Japan from an international perspective.