Crime Wave

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Japan is in the grip of an older Wave of crime - the percentage of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 is increasing steadily, for 20 years. The BBC's Ed Butler asks why.

To a halfway house in Hiroshima for criminals released from prison back into the Community - to 69-year-old Toshio Takata told me That he broke The Law , because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to stay for free, even if it is behind bars.

", I is the age limit reached, and I ran out of the money. So it fell to me - maybe I could live for free if I lived in The Prison ," he says.

"So, I took a Bicycle and drove it to The Police station and said to the guy: 'Look, I took this. '"

The Plan worked. This was committed Toshio first offence, when he was 62, but the Japanese courts treat theft seriously, so it was enough to make him a one-year sentence.

Small, slim, and giggling with a tendency, Toshio looks nothing like a common criminal, much less someone who threaten would women with knives. But after he was released from His first sentence, That is exactly what he has done.

"I went to a park and threatened them. I was not intending to harm. I just showed The Knife to you call out in the hope one of them would be The Police . You Did. "

Toshio shows His own drawings in His cell, Toshio has half of The Last eight years in prison.

I ask him if he will pay in prison, and he has an additional financial upside His pension, even if he inside.

"It's not That I like it, but I can stay there for free," he says. "And when I saved I some money. So it is not painful. "

Toshio represents a distinctive trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, with a rapidly growing years of the proportion of crime takes place on the of people over 65. In 1997 In this age group, about 20 convictions accounted for, but 20 years later the figure had grown to More Than a fifth - a rate That is far higher than the growth of the over 65-year-olds as a proportion of the population (although they now Make Up More Than a quarter of the total number).

And as Toshio, many of these old people break The Law and are repeat offenders. The year sentenced to 2500 people over 65, in the year 2016,

Another example is Keiko (not her real name). Seventy years old, small and neatly presented, it also tells me That it is the poverty That was her undoing.

"I couldn't get along with my husband. I had nowhere To Live , and to stay No Place . So it was my only choice: to steal," she says. "Even women in their 80s, who are not running correctly, commit crimes. It is because they can not find food, money. "

We talked a few months ago in an ex-offenders hostel. I said, and has since been re-arrested, and is now serving Another prison term for shoplifting.

Find out more Japan can be heard Older Wave of crime, commissioned by the BBC World Service from Thursday, 31. January -

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theft of, predominantly, the biggest crime committed by older offenders. Usually they are stealing food to the value of less than 3,000 Yen (20 euros) from a business you visit regularly.

Michael Newman , an Australian-to-Japanese-born demographer with the Tokyo-based research house, customer-specific products Research group points out That the "meager" basic state pension in Japan is very difficult.

In a release in 2016, it is calculated That , if you have No Other Income - and That 's before you have paid for the heating or clothing. In The Past , it was Tradition, children to their parents, but in the provinces, a lack of economic opportunities, many younger people, leaving their parents to fend for themselves.

"pensioners don't want to be a burden to their children, and the feeling That , if you can't survive on The State pension then pretty much the only way not to be a burden to mix into The Prison ," he says.

you repeat offend, is a way of "returns to prison", where there are three meals A Day and no bills, he says.

"It's almost as if you rolled, you roll again. "

Newman points out That the suicide also meet more frequently in older people, a further way for you to what he would bow you might consider as "their duty".

Director of "With Hiroshima ", the rehab center, where I met Toshio Takata, also considers changes in the Japanese families That have contributed to the older Wave of crime, but he emphasized the psychological effects, not the financial.

", Ultimately, is The Relationship between people has changed. Have isolated people more and more. You will not find a place in this society. You can not put up with their loneliness," says Kanichi Yamada, an 85-year-old, who was dragged to as a child, from the rubble of His house when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima .

"elderly people who commit crimes, A Number of have life this turn in their midst. There are a few trigger. You lose a wife or children, and you can't cope with just That . In General, people do not commit crimes, if you have people who care about you and support you. "

Toshio story about the dangers of crime as result of poverty is only proposing a "sorry", Kanichi Yamada. The Core of the problem of His loneliness. And a factor That might have motivated him to a relapse, he speculates, was The Promise of the company in The Prison .

It is true That Toshio is alone in The World . His parents are dead and he has lost contact with two older brothers, which no answer to His call. He also has wives lost contact with His two ex -, of which he divorced, and His three children.

Toshio is a passionate painter, I ask him if he thinks That things would have been different if he had a wife and family. He says they would.

"If you had come to support me, I wouldn't have done That ," he says.

Michael Newman has observed, the Japanese government has expanded prison capacity, and recruited additional female prison guards (The Number of older women, the criminals are rising particularly rapidly, albeit from a low base). He also referred to the steep rise in bill for the medical treatment of people in detention.

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There were other changes, as I see for myself, in a prison in Fuchu, outside of Tokyo, where nearly a third of the prisoners today are over 60.

There are a lot of marching inside Japanese prisons - marching and screaming. But here's the military drill seems to be becoming harder and harder to enforce. I see a few gray occupants on the rear of the platoon are struggling to keep pace. One is on crutches.

"We have said for the improvement of the facilities here," Masatsugu Yazawa, The Prison 's head of education to me. "We have grab handles and special toilets. There are classes for older offenders. "

He leads me to observe one of them. It begins with a karaoke rendition of a popular song, The reason why I was Born, all about the meaning of life. The Inmates are encouraged to sing along. Some look quite moved.

"We Sing to show you That Real Life outside The Prison , and happiness, it is," Yazawa said. "But still, you think back, life in prison is better, and many to come. "

Michael Newman argues procedure That it would be much better - and much cheaper - the care of the elderly, excluding the costs of court and imprisonment.

"actually, We are calculated to build a model of an industrial complex, retirement village, where people lose half of their pension, but get free food, free meals and health care and so on, and you play karaoke-or gate-ball with The Other residents and have a relative amount of freedom. It costs far less than what the government is spending at the moment," he says.

But he also suggests That the tendency for Japanese courts to hand down custodial sentences for theft, "something bizarre in respect of the penalty is actually the mounting of The Crime ".

"The theft of a 200-Yen (£1. 40) sandwich could be 8 to one. 4m Yen (£58,000) Tax bill for a two-year sentence," he writes in His 2016 report.

This is a hypothetical example, but I met an older brother, whose experience was almost identical. He had a two-year prison sentence for His second offence: stealing a bottle of pepper to the value of £2. 50.

And I Heard of Morio Mochizuki, who provides security for the approximately 3,000 points of sale in Japan, That is, if all the courts are getting tougher on the long finger.

"Even if he has only stolen a piece of bread," says Masayuki Sho, Japan's Prison Service, "it was decided at the hearing That it is going to be appropriate for you to jail, therefore, we must teach them the way of life in the society without committing crimes. "

I don't know whether the criminal taught law enforcement authority, Toshio Takata this lesson, but if I ask him if he is already planning His next crime, he denies it.

"no, actually, it is," he says.

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elderly people, japan, prisons, pensions

Source of news: bbc.com