Business of Life

Wrinkled Crime

Japan is now seeing a soaring rate of crime by those over 65 at the same time that crimes by youth have fallen. Geriatric crime up in Japan.

From theft to arson to murder, figures by the National Police Agency tell a sorry tale of soaring “neo-geriatric” crime during 2005. In a year when youth crime fell, the over-65s accounted for more than one in ten of all Japanese arrests — a dramatic leap from the one-in-50 level recorded in 1990.

Crimes favoured by the elderly are pick-pocketing and shoplifting. In many cases, said one police officer, they have developed a cunning strategy to avoid arrest even if caught red-handed: feigning senile dementia.

But murder is also sharply on the rise, with the over-65s responsible for 141 incidents last year. In most cases, the strangling or stabbing was by a husband or wife who had found that after more than 50 years of marriage they could no longer stand each other.


Demographic trends play a large part, but it may be that the silver-haired have just too much time on their hands. A former police psychologist says

“Neo-Geriatrics are those over 65 who are still fit, healthy and want to get more out of their lives. Without work, they’ll be filled with anxiety and there’s a likelihood they may turn to crime.”