Did you guys read it? What were your thoughts on it.
Well… Japan’s sex crime statistics are valid and there’s no reason to doubt their accuracy. Both men and women are generally safer from sexual assault in Japan than they are in other countries.
Something to note about Japan is that their crime statistics are low across the board, from violent crime, to white-collar crime, to petty crime.
The cold truth is that sex crimes, in general, typically go underreported. This is as much the case for Japan as well as the United States, or anywhere else.
Across the board, various reasons from personal shame or guilt by victims, care for the offender, to simply believing that their abuse or the belief that the specific crime in question “isn’t a big deal”, to the desire to not have their name or reputation associated with something so uncomfortable.
A great deal of focus has been made on Japan’s low sex crime statistics, though, most of the criticisms levied against them are unfounded or are overly exaggerated. I personally know just about 10 people who live in Japan, both men and women, native and foreigner, and they all say that everything is fine in terms of practicality.
The most they have to worry about are gropers or “chikan” when riding public transit, which authorities and train staff would warn people over.
Chikan are also exceedingly rare, but people still worry. This has prompted people to go out of their way to help identify and assist police with apprehending offenders, should offenses occur.
Japan could still improve things in terms of policy with how they define “rape” and sexual assault and how they investigate things. They’ve made great improvements in the last two decades with regard to how they define, investigate, and prosecute sex crimes, but they still have room to improve.
Data yielded from population studies in the forms of surveys and interviews conducted by reputable NGOs and the Japanese government with pools of citizens do generally support the contention that such crimes (sexual assaults, rapes, molestations) are indeed as unlikely as the government statistics suggest.
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