Record 300 reported child abuse cases in Japan in 2007

I don’t want to get all sociological and everything, but I’d like to stress the word REPORTED.

REPORTED

I urge people who read news about Japan’s low crime rate to keep in mind that this is the number of cases reported and filed officially. There are many cases that go unreported for various reasons, as well as cases that are resolved “off the record”. I don’t know how actual rates might compare in the US, but Japan certainly has a higher rate than official numbers show.

I quote this article in the Japan Times:
“The number of people arrested or those who had their cases sent to prosecutors in child abuse cases came to 323.”

It’s important to note that if there was no arrest or prosecution in the case (meaning cases taken care of of the child welfare department of the local government, ended with some intervention from the school, or went unreported to officials) it was not counted. They still made it to almost one a day.