If numbers mean anything, then the National Police Agency’s crackdown on the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai led by director Takaharu Ando has been something of a success. The NPA released arrest figures for the first half of this year on Aug 19, revealing a large jump in arrests of Kodo-kai members despite overall numbers of gang arrests dropping 0.1 percent. According to the reports, in the period between January and June, 12,588 people were arrested for 23,403 offenses involving firearms, drugs or other organized crime-related problems. Eight members of the Yamaguchi-gumi were arrested compared to three in 2009, but Kodo-kai arrests jumped up 36.1 percent to 1,022 members, including eight kumi-cho and 19 other top-ranking members.
According to the Sankei, drug-related arrests were up 3.9 percent with 3,558 of the 7,227 arrested thought to be gang members, up 7.1 percent. The number of foreigners arrested for drugs was down 10.9 percent to 262 people. Cases involving stimulants were up 11.1 percent, a whopping 82 percent of total drug arrests, while cannabis cases dropped 19.7 percent.
Statistics for a number of other issues have also been released within the past few weeks. The number of youth getting involved in illegal activities on “hi-deai-kei,” or non-deai-kei, Web sites such as gaming sites of SNSs like Mixi increased 10.3 percent during the first half of the year. The number of cases has been on the rise every year since police began recording the statistic in 2008. Due to stronger policing and regulations, says Jiji, the number of incidents involving deai-kei sites was cut nearly in half, and police believe those looking for this type of encounter have simply migrated to other online forums.
Arrests of foreigners were down 37.7 percent, with police apprehending 5,996 people, mainly Chinese and Korean citizens, for crimes such as theft and violations of immigration law.
The number of child abuse cases reached the highest ever since statistics started being collected in 2000 with 199 arrests being made in 181 incidents–up 15.3 percent from 2009. Police point the jump to an increasing reluctance to keep quiet by daycare givers, hospitals, neighbors and others who come into contact with abused children. Only 11 incidents involved rape or other kinds of molestation, and 30.2 percent of the crimes were committed by the children’s fathers.