TOKYO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The number of reported crimes in Japan in 2025 rose 4.9 percent from the previous year to 774,142, up for the fourth straight year, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday.
Thefts remained the most common offense with 513,931 cases, accounting for more than 60 percent of all crimes and marking an increase of 2.5 percent from a year earlier, while shoplifting climbed 7 percent to 105,135 cases, half of which involved food being stolen, according to preliminary figures released by the NPA.
Cases of fraud and similar crimes rose by 25 percent from 2024 to 77,473, while special fraud cases, in which criminals impersonate relatives and officials to scam victims out of their money, soared by 31.9 percent to 27,758, netting a record loss of 141.42 billion yen (about 924 million U.S. dollars), nearly double from the previous year.
The number of investment scams via social media swelled by 48.7 percent from a year earlier to 9,538, with scammers stealing about 127.47 billion yen in total, up 46.3 percent.
In a survey conducted by the NPA on 5,000 people aged 15 and older in October 2025, 79.7 percent of respondents said they thought public safety had "gotten worse" in the past 10 years, 3.1 percentage points higher than the figure in the same survey conducted a year earlier.
The number of reported crimes continued decreasing after peaking in 2002 at about 2.85 million. However, the annual number began to rebound after hitting bottom in 2021. ■
