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 White paper on crime 2009 Part3/Chapter1/Section2/1 

Section 2  Trends in Offenses

1 Penal code offenses

  Fig. 3-1-2-1 shows the number 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 foreign nationals increased from 2002, reaching a record high in 2005 at 43,622, but then started decreasing from 2006 and was 34,620 cases in 2008 (down 2,694 or 7.2% 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 decreasing from 2006 on and was 12,611 in 2008 (down 728 or 5.5% (id.)) (See Appendix 3-1). The percentage of foreign nationals of total persons (339,752) cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses was 3.7% in 2008.
  Examining the differences between visiting foreign nationals and other foreign nationals revealed that the number of cases and persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting foreign nationals was larger than that by other foreign nationals, from 1993 on regarding the number of cases and from 1991 on regarding the number of persons. From then on, the number of cleared cases of foreign nationals has reflected the trends in the number of cleared cases of visiting foreign nationals. The number of cleared cases of visiting foreign nationals increased from 2002, reaching a record high in 2005, and then started decreasing, and was 23,202 (down 2,528 or 9.8% from the previous year) in 2008. The number of persons cleared reached a record high in 2004, and then started decreasing, and was 7,148 (down 380 or 5.0% (id.)) in 2008.

Fig. 3-1-2-1  Number of cases and persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by foreign nationals (1980–2008)

  The percent distribution of cleared cases for non-traffic penal code offenses committed by visiting foreign nationals by type of offense, shown in Fig. 3-1-2-2, revealed that theft accounted for the overwhelming majority at 83.0% (the reason for the number of cleared cases being larger than the number of persons cleared probably lies in the fact that the percentage of theft was high and that the same 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 (2008)

  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, and then started decreasing from 2006, and was 19,266 in 2008 (down 2,061 or 9.7% from the previous year). The number of cleared cases for burglary theft, however, has been consistently increasing over the last 10 years and in 2008 it increased by 8.6% from the previous year. The number of cleared cases for injury/assault has been increasing significantly over the last 10 years too. The number in 2008 was about 3.3 times larger than that in 1999.

Fig. 3-1-2-3  Number of cleared cases for theft, etc. committed by visiting foreign nationals (1999–2008)