Elderly offenders in Japan: Evolution and analysis of the issue

Abstract

Not all Japanese elderly can enjoy a leisurely, carefree retirement. As it is shown by recent data, the number of crimes committed by ”Elderly offenders”, has begun to be a cause of concern in Japan, where their number has grown considerably in about a decade. This phenomenon, often linked with the issue of an aging population, has unique characteristics in Japan where it is providing an unprecedented opportunity to revisit conceptualizations on criminal offenses. The first part of this paper will focus on describing the evolution of this issue from the beginning of the 90s until today, introducing the demographic and social changes that accompanied this problem and presenting the data about the main characteristics of the perpetrators, and the crimes committed. We will later focus on the perception of this issue, the interpretations given to it by different academics presenting the causes and we will look at the measures that the Japanese government has used so far to curb this growing problem, evaluating their effectiveness based on the results achieved. Finally, the last part of this work will focus on identifying the peculiarities of this issue. We will analyze the reasons why this phenomenon is not occurring in other countries that, as Japan, are experiencing a significant increase in the elderly population and a drop in the fertility rate. This paper aims to outline the main characteristics of the problem of elderly offenders in Japan and the differences with other countries analyzing the data released by the Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice in the "White Papers on Crime", a series of papers that provide each year statistical data on crimes and the current issues in the criminal justice field. The author will also try to observe whether there have been significant evolutions or changes in this issue over time.