Crime Figures Climb for Fourth Year in Japan, Exceeding Prepandemic 2019 Level

A Big Rise for Fraud

The number of reported crimes in Japan rose by 4.9% in 2025 to 774,142, according to statistics from the National Police Agency. This is higher than the total in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a peak of 2.85 million reported crimes in 2002, figures fell steadily over the subsequent decades, before rising again in 2022, for the first time in 20 years. The total has now increased for 4 successive years.

Theft accounted for around two-thirds of all crimes, climbing 2.5% year on year; there was also a 25.0% increase in fraud and similar crimes, which saw a 26.5% rise. Vice offenses rose by 9.4%; this category includes gambling, indecent assault, public indecency, and violations of legislation banning sexually exploitative filming without consent.

Reported cases of major crimes like murder, robbery, arson, rape and indecent assault, and kidnapping and trafficking increased 3.2% over the previous year to 15,086. There were minor rises for murder at 976 cases and robbery at 1,428. Following revisions in 2023 to sexual crime legislation, there were continued increases for rape at 4,177 cases and indecent assault at 7,193.

Total financial losses from fraud cases rose by 31.1% to ¥402.9 billion in 2025, with increased average losses per individual case.

The number of specialized fraud cases climbed by 31.9% to 27,758, with the financial losses from these cases soaring by 96.8% to ¥141.4 billion; both figures are new records. Ore ore (literally “it’s me, it’s me”) scams, where a scammer impersonates a relative of the victim or a trusted member of the community, saw a 113.2% spike to 14,393 cases, with a 144.5% increase in financial losses to ¥112.1 billion. There were also rises in the number of cases and financial losses for social media fraud, such as investment and romance scams.

Concerning social media fraud, the NPA noted that organized gangs and looser tokuryū groups are dividing up tasks and taking other measures to remain anonymous before systematically carrying out their crimes.

Data Sources

• Data on crime in 2025 (Japanese) from the National Police Agency

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: Members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department working as part of an antiterrorism drill in Tokyo on March 13, 2025, ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of the 1995 subway sarin attacks. © Jiji.)