SAPPORO, Japan–Criminology is being stood on its head in fast-greying Japan.
Here on the cold northern island of Hokkaido, history was made in 2006 when total arrests of elderly people exceeded arrests of teenagers. The elderly accounted for 880 arrests, mostly for shoplifting, while teens were nabbed 642 times. Since then, elder-crime has surged. For every two teenagers arrested on this island, police collared three people 65 and older.
The elderly in Japan are committing crimes – nearly all of them non-violent, mostly petty theft – because of loneliness, social isolation and poverty, according to a recent Justice Ministry study.
The trend echoes across Japan, where crimes committed by the elderly are increasing at a far faster pace than the elderly population.
While the 65-and-older population has doubled in the past two decades, crime among the elderly has increased fivefold, according to government statistics released this month. Japan's overall crime rate, always low by world standards, has fallen for the past five years.
Around the world, criminologists have found the propensity to commit crime peaks in the late teens and early 20s, and falls off steadily as people age. But Japan, with the world's oldest population and lowest proportion of children, is headed into uncharted waters for criminal behaviour.
Experts here predict that the entire country, like Hokkaido, will soon record more arrests of the old than of the young.
A desperate desire for human contact or for novelty in their lives leads many elderly people to shoplift, experts say.
"They want somebody to talk to," said Hidehiko Yamamura of the National Shoplifting Prevention Organization, a non-profit group in Tokyo. "If they get caught, they can talk to the police. They are very easy to catch."
This country of 127 million has the oldest population on record. Slightly more than 22 per cent of residents are 65 and older.
For the first time in Japan's history, people 75 and older make up more than 10 per cent of the population. The number of children, meanwhile, has declined for 27 consecutive years. Demographers say the elderly – who tend to live longer in Japan than elsewhere – will continue to increase until 2040, when they will outnumber the young by nearly four to one.
To slow the growth of elder-crime, the Justice Ministry recommends financial and social programs to stabilize the lives of the elderly.
The global financial crisis, which has plunged Japan into what economists predict will be a severe and protracted recession, is likely to limit the government's ability to spend more on programs for the elderly. Spending is also limited by the government's enormous debt burden, the highest among wealthy countries.
