Fig. 5-3-6-23 shows the number of cases in which people were victimized by homicide and robbery at home and the rate of cases of victimization at home to all homicide and robbery cases, by comparison between elderly victims (aged 65 or over in this subsection) and other victims.
  Generally, there has not been significant change for homicide. Among cases involving victims under 65, the number of cases of victimization at places other than home has been rising slightly while the rate of victimization at home has been declining slightly from a level around 50% to the level within the 40%-45% range. Among cases involving victims aged 65 or over, the number of cases of victimization at home has been rising slightly but the number of cases of victimization at places other than home has also been increasing. Accordingly, the rate of victimization at home has recently been declining at around 70%.
  As for robbery, among cases involving victims under 65, the number of cases of victimization at home has been rising slightly but the number of cases of victimization at places other than home has been rising more rapidly. Accordingly, the rate of victimization at home has been declining since 1989, down by more than half from 25.4% in 1989 to 10.1 % in 2002. This decline was mainly due to the increase in the number of cases of street robbery and other types of non-invasive robbery and in the number of cases of invasive robbery targeting stores/offices rather than houses. Among cases involving victims aged 65 or over, the number of cases of victimization at home has also been rising as has the number of cases of victimization at places other than home, increasing 6.5-fold and 4.1-fold from 1989 to 2002 respectively. For this reason, unlike victims under 65, the rate of victimization at home among victims aged 65 or over has remained almost flat with some fluctuation within the range from 37.4% to 53.9%. Elderly people aged 65 or over seem to be victimized frequently not only by robbery committed on street or at places other than home but also by more heinous robbery at home.

Fig. 5-3-6-23 Trends in the number of reported cases of homicide and robbery and the rate of victimization at home (1989-2002)