Table 1-4-1-1-[1] shows the number of reported cases of major offenses in each country from 1981 to 2000.
  Though the number of reported cases of major offenses in Japan is outstandingly lower than that in the other 4 countries, it has showed an increasing trend since 1982, and in particular, it has exceeded the number in previous years since 1996.
  On the other hand, as for the number of reported cases of major offenses in the other 4 countries, the U.S.A., which has the highest number of reported cases, is the only country where the number of reported cases decreased among the 5 countries. The number of reported cases in the U.S.A. took a downward turn in 1992, and has gradually displayed a decreasing trend since then. The number of reported cases in France, Germany, and the U.K. have showed rising trends overall, though repeatedly increasing and decreasing. In particular, in comparison between 1981 and 2000, the U.K. has showed the highest increase, an increase of nearly double. As for Germany, though the number of reported cases had markedly increased since 1991 when the West and East were unified, it took a downward turn in 1996. As for France, the number of reported cases, which had been decreasing since 1995, took an upward turn in 1998 and has continued to increase.
   Table 1-4-1-1-[2] shows crime rates for major offenses in each country since 1981. The crime rate in 2000 was highest in the U.K., followed by Germany, France, the U.S.A., and the crime rate of Japan was the lowest among these 5 countries. However, by comparison with the crime rates in 1981, only the U.S.A. had decreased crime rates and the other 4 countries including Japan increased, in order of the U.K., Japan, France, and Germany.
   Table 1-4-1-2 shows trends of clearance rates in each country since 1988, when clearance rates for major offenses began to fall rapidly in Japan.
  In comparison between Japan and the 3 countries excluding Germany, the clearance rate in Japan has exceeded that in these countries through all periods until 1999.
  However, the clearance rate in Japan has been lower than that in Germany since 1989, and the difference between them has been expanding since 1995. Additionally, clearance rates in the last few years have been generally fluctuating within 7 points in these 4 countries, but the clearance rate in Japan was 23.6% in 2000, decreasing by 10.2 points over the previous year, and fell below France and the U.K. (see Part 1, Chapter 1, Section 1 ).

Table 1-4-1-1 Number of reported cases and crime rate of major offenses in 5 countries (1981-2000)

Table 1-4-1-2 Clearance rate of major offenses, homicide and larceny in 5 countries (1988-2000)