Feature: Japan's elderly outnumber juvenile criminals

"Apparently it all started on the train platform when he tried to sneakily slip the younger guy's wallet into his bag, but as he made his move the guy woke up from his drunken stupor on the seat on the platform and caught him in the act and a verbal slanging match ensued and escalated, during which the victim, albeit drunk, ended up hollering for the station staff and the police," remembered Tomomi Maeda.

In Japan tussles on trains and platforms are fairly uncommon and those that do happen are often fueled by alcohol and are usually resolved amicably by station staff, or, indeed, the police, if the station personnel feel threatened or can't handle the situation themselves. But as Maeda explained this case was far from the usual drunken argy-bargy.

"Tadashi Ota (a pseudonym) is a resident at our facility in the city of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture. He has no physical disabilities and for a 75 year old is in pretty good shape, so is allowed to go for walks, visit the local library, parks and so on, " Maeda, a senior care worker at a nursing home for the elderly, told Xinhua.

"But Ota's favorite thing to do was to buy the cheapest senior persons' ticket and ride the train into Tokyo and back, while reading a book or listening to his portable radio," said Maeda, adding that he was a peaceful man, so receiving a call from the police saying he'd been arrested for attempted robbery in central Tokyo was shocking to say the least.

The case involving Ota, may have been more opportunistic than premeditated, but a worrying facet of Japan's rapidly aging society is the fact that for the first time since comparative statistics became available in 1989, Japan's National Police Agency announced recently that the number of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has surpassed those of teenagers.

According to the police agency, while Japan has seen a drop in its overall crime rate over the past 10 years and by around 9 percent in the first half of this year compared to last, officers took action against more than 23,000 elderly people in the period, compared to less than 20,000 youngsters aged between 14 and 19, with violent crimes committed by the elderly, the over 65 year olds of which now comprise a quarter of Japan's graying population, shooting up by 10 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, with officials stating that this figure is set to rise.

And while crimes committed by juveniles has charted a downward trajectory, dropping by more than 15 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, with theft decreasing by 14.1 percent and violent crimes down 19.2 percent, the police agency said the number of elderly criminals are on the increase, up 2.7 percent, with violent crimes leaping 10.8 percent from a year earlier, of which murder and robbery surged 11.8 percent in the recording period.

Ota, part of a new demographic of graying criminals in Japan, was released with a caution after he admitted he had tried to steal the man's wallet on the platform and, as it transpired, the crime was committed for a number of reasons that reflect a broader, worrying trend of elderly people in Japan. According to Maeda, Ota was feeling isolated as most of his relatives lived in and around Chiba Prefecture, meaning that frequent visits were difficult with Ota alluding to the fact that his family seemed too busy to visit, even when they did have time during the Golden Week and Obon holiday seasons, for example.

He said he felt less lonely when he was on the trains and sitting on platforms as he was surrounded by people, even though they were strangers, but enjoyed the odd interaction when a younger person would offer him their seat so he could ride the train in comfort. It also transpired that as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put the squeeze on pension payments, he was being forced to dig into his ever-diminishing savings, so, when the opportunity arose to steal some money, he took it, recounted Maeda.

According to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research the number of Japanese seniors living alone will rise 54 percent to 7.2 million in 2030 from current levels at over than 5 million, with many feeling a sense of anomie and worthlessness having worked through the boom years in Japan, yet suddenly left with nothing to do and with dwindling support from family and care givers, with the latter owing to Japan's slumping birthrate.

"While serious crime by the elderly has been on the increase, the majority of crimes reported are of petty theft and shoplifting, with the number of cases of arrests amounting to around 30,000 cases in 2014 compared to just less than 20,000 by juveniles, according to the police agency, and while some people are generally stealing food out of necessity due to financial reasons, such as pension issues and a lack of savings, others are stealing out of loneliness and isolation," renown sociologist Keiko Gono told Xinhua.

"It used to be the case that local grocery stores were a place where elderly people could interact with each other and younger generations, as was the case with other community-based shops and places like libraries, book stores and community centers and such like. But nowadays such shops and local meeting places have been replaced by large chains of supermarkets, department stores and drug stores, which are treated purely for shopping, not for bumping into and having a chat with other local elderly folk, or socializing younger generations living in the area," said Gono, adding that over 65 year olds comprised 60 percent of all cases involving shoplifting.

Gono's research statistics also reflect those of the Ministry of Justice, with the rising number of elderly criminals a problem that the government is struggling to deal with, as the nation's greying population increases, pensions decline and younger nursing home workers are set to decrease, commensurate with the declining birthrate.

"Senior citizens also steal because they are lonely and isolated," said Yusuke Ishikawa, a special assistant to the director of the supervision division at the Ministry of Justice. Ishikawa's views are also shared by Yuji Ozaki, a security officer at Zenkoku Security Guard in Tokyo who stated, "The traditional support system is breaking down and the elderly are cut off from society. In the old days, someone used to talk to them when they shopped downtown. But now they only have big stores nearby, and nobody talks to them. I think they get kind of frustrated and do it when they lose interaction with the neighborhood," Ozaki, who works at supermarkets, drugstores, and department stores, was quoted as saying. Endi