The recent deteriorating criminal trend has also had a significant influence on the general public's social awareness.
  Fig. 6-2-3-2 shows the top eight fields selected as those that have been on a deteriorating trend in the "Public Opinion Poll on Social Awareness" (multiple answers allowed) conducted by the Cabinet Office in February 2006.

Fig. 6-2-3-2  Rate selected as fields that have been on a deteriorating trend

  In recent years, the general public's anxiety about "public safety" has become heightened rapidly. In the poll in 2006 as well as that in the previous year, the percentage of those who selected "public safety" as one of the "fields that have been on a deteriorating trend" was the highest.
  The Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice conducted a Crime Victimization Survey (dark figure) in February 2004. To a question asking about the "awareness of Japan's public safety," the largest portion (61.0%) of respondents answered that Japan's present public safety is "bad," 22.2% "neither good nor bad," 13.2% "good," and 3.6% "don't know." With regard to questions asking about the "anxiety they feel when walking alone at night," the "anxiety they feel when staying home alone at night," and the "anxiety they feel about the possibility of being victimized by break-ins at home," the results showed their higher anxiety than that which was observed in a similar survey conducted in 2000.
  Fig. 6-2-3-3 shows the top six types of offenses selected as those people feel scared that they or their family or friends might encounter in the "Public Opinion Poll on Safety and Security" (multiple answers allowed) conducted by the Cabinet Office in July 2004.

Fig. 6-2-3-3  Offenses people feel scared that they might encounter

  As types of offenses they feel scared that they or their family or friends might encounter, more people selected familiar ones such as theft like theft from a house in the absence of the occupiers and snatching, crimes targeting children, assault, and injury than heinous ones such as homicide and robbery. This indicates that increases in familiar offenses that may happen in the neighborhood are threatening people's peaceful daily life and heightening their social anxiety.
  The results of recent opinion polls show significant changes in public awareness of crimes. The general public has come to feel "anxious" as opposed to "safe and secure." Such changes in public awareness have been made in a grand flow of transformation of the entire Japanese society. Rapid deterioration of the criminal trend has raised the necessity of the establishment and implementation of appropriate crime prevention measures.