Poverty and isolation among the nation’s growing elderly population may be to blame.
Crimes among those over the age of 65 have overtaken teenagers since 1989 when age-related statistics first began to be reported, according to the Kyodo News Agency.
Law enforcement took action against more than 23,000 older adults in the first six months of this year. In contrast, teen crime has fallen — 20,000 youth between the ages of 14 and 19 have been involved in police action.
While Japan’s overall crime rates have continued to fall since 2002, the numbers of crimes allegedly committed by the elderly has risen. Violent crime committed by seniors has grown by over 10 percent as compared to last year.
More than one quarter of Japan’s 127 million people are now of retirement age, and the government estimates that 40 percent of all citizens will be over 65 by 2060.
Japan is among the top in the world for longevity with women living to 87 and men to 80, on average — compared to 81 for women and 76 for men in the U.S.
The graying of Japan’s population is a challenge because older adults are more likely to suffer from poverty, which may be the reason behind crimes.
“When they see in their peer group that someone has much more money than they do, they are eager to get that,” psychology professor Bas van Alphen at the Free University of Brussels told Bloomberg. “I had one patient who stole candies to handle the hours of loneliness every day,” says van Alphen, who describes such behavior as “novelty-seeking.”
South Korea has also seen sharp rise in elderly crime rates, including a 40 percent spike in violent crime. The alarming trend has led to calls for the government to offer more support to people as they grow older.
