July 10, 2025

Exclusionist political parties in the House of Councilors election campaign are propagating the claim that an increase in the foreign population leads to a decline in Japan’s public order.

The Ministry of Justice White Paper on Crime 2024 shows that after peaking in 2005, the number of Penal Code offences committed by foreign nationals and the number of arrested foreign criminals have been trending downward.

In 2023, the number of crimes committed by foreigners and the number of foreign criminals increased by 20% and 12%, respectively, compared to 2022. However, the period from 2020 to 2022 was a time when Japan saw an extreme decrease in the number of foreign arrivals due to its COVID-19 border control measures. The number of foreign entrants in 2023 increased sixfold from the previous year.

In recent years, except for the drop during the coronavirus pandemic, both the number of foreign visitors and the non-Japanese population have grown, which does not mean that foreign crimes are on the rise. In the above-mentioned government report, the prosecution rate of criminal offenses was 41.1% for visiting foreigners and 36.9% for all offenders, including Japanese nationals. In complete disregard of this fact, xenophobic parties argue that foreigners are less likely to be prosecuted when they are arrested for committing a crime.

Regarding foreign crimes, what cannot be ignored is the amount of violent crimes committed by U.S. servicemembers and U.S. military-attached civilian employees in Japan, such as murder, sexual violence, and hit-and-runs. The number of reported crimes and accidents involving U.S. military personnel totaled 214,617 between 1952 and 2023. Japanese citizens living in U.S. base-hosting municipalities like Okinawa are constantly in fear for their safety. Xenophobic parties show no intent to tackle this issue.

Unlike antiforeign parties’ assertions, the number of foreign residents who receive public livelihood assistance decreased by 10,000 during the past decade.