[Sangetsu]

Crime happens in Japan, just as it happens everywhere else. But no one can deny that Japan has less crime than most other developed countries. One also can't deny that Japan has very little diversity racially or culturally. Only 1% of the population is foreign. It's not hard to put 2 and 2 together and either blame foreigners for crime, or the lack of diversity as one of the reasons for how little crime there is.

One of the reasons Japan has a low crime rate is it's criminal justice system. There are no juries here. If you are charged with a crime, it will be heard in front of a judge who will decide the case on the evidence and the law. Your lawyer will not bring up your troubled childhood or how society failed you during your teenage years. More than likely he'll tell you to plead guilty and take whatever punishment is handed out. Is it any wonder that the vast majority of defendants in Japan plead guilty?

In America, people routinely get away with murder or other crimes. That is not so in Japan. There are no Barry Schecks, Alan Dershowitzs, or Melvin Bellis here who can plant doubt in the heads of jurors in the most airtight of criminal cases.

There is no "American" style crime here. Crimes of passion are fairly common, as are corruption cases, and garden variety theft. There is extremely little random violence (though it still happens on occasion).

Many of you probably think that one of the reasons that the crime rate in Japan is so low is because there are no guns in Japan. But this isn't true either. About 250,000 private citizens in Japan are licensed to own firearms. These licenses have to be renewed annually, but they are not all that difficult to get. And those are the legally owned guns. In Japan, like anywhere else in the world, if you want a gun, and you have the money, you'll be able to find one.