# Special Feature: Measures to Cope with Crimes that Threaten Everyday Life

Regarding the Special Feature

The theme of the special feature of the White Paper on Police this year is “Measures to Cope with Crimes that Threaten Everyday Life.”

In this feature on “Crimes That Threaten Everyday Life”, we have chosen to address near-at-hand crimes that are highly likely to get citizens into trouble in their everyday life even without their knowing it, centering on Furikome (remittance-soliciting) frauds (extortion), which have caused extensive damage in recent years.

The security situation in Japan has been improving in recent years, with the number of confirmed Penal Code offenses continuing to decrease after having peaked out in 2002. Yet, the people’s sense of unease over public safety has yet to be dispelled.

Furikome frauds (extortion) remain of serious proportions, causing damage in excess of ¥25 billion each year since 2004. Furikome frauds (extortion) are fairly mean-minded crimes that take undue advantage of parents' and grandparents' affections for children and grandchildren and seize on the relationship of trust between people and society. There are even victims who were driven to kill themselves after being defrauded of all living funds or other precious property. They are also crimes that take advantage of blind spots of the convenience of the modern society, in which criminal groups lurking in the anonymous society use cell phones and bank deposit accounts under fictitious or other people's names to repeat criminal acts systematically without seeing victims in person.

In recent years, we also see frequent cases of fraudulent commercial practices such as “inspection business,” where people are tricked into unnecessary home renovation at high costs after uncalled-for inspections of roofs, foundations and other sections of houses, and false labeling of food products and other offenses that would undermine food safety and security. Thus, the risk of citizens getting entangled in crimes imperceptibly in everyday life is deemed to have increased considerably.

Given these circumstances, in this feature, we review the current situation of Furikome frauds (extortion) and other crimes that threaten citizens' property in everyday life (fraudulent commercial practices, black-market finance offenses and frauds using the Internet) as well as crimes that pose threats to people's lives and bodies in everyday life (offenses that threaten the safety and security concerning food products and manufactured goods, and health-related offenses) in Section 1, discuss in detail measures being taken by police to cope with these crimes in Section 2, and then present the future prospects in Section 3.

Police have been making efforts to control and prevent crimes that threaten everyday life, but since measures to cope with them involve a number of administrative agencies and other organizations, their cooperation is essential. We hope this feature will help forge even stronger cooperative ties between related agencies and organizations and police, and also help citizens become well aware of how to avoid getting entangled in crimes described above and lead their everyday life safely and reassuredly.