Comments on: Illegal immigrants no longer a major public order threat http://whatjapanthinks.com/2012/08/30/illegal-immigrants-no-longer-a-major-public-order-threat/ From kimono to keitai; research Japanese facts and figures through translated opinion polls and surveys. Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:29:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.2 By: bingobangoboy http://whatjapanthinks.com/2012/08/30/illegal-immigrants-no-longer-a-major-public-order-threat/comment-page-1/#comment-250762 Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:07:03 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/?p=5078#comment-250762 Seems like a pretty encouraging set of polls to me.
First of all, people *always* think that crime is on the rise, even if it’s actually in significant decline (as it is in present-day Japan), which will always inflate figures somewhat.
Secondly, simply offering the choice and allowing multiple selections is going to produce affirmative answers, especially given the fact that the people answering S2SQ (“What do you think are the causes of worsening public order?”) have already answered that they agree with the premise of the question (crime is rising). Foreigners/immigrants were the second-lowest target of blame in that question, which suggests that far fewer respondents would think to offer that answer unprompted.
It’s still appropriate to speak out against the tendency to attribute crime to foreigners, but realistically, I doubt you could find more foreigner-friendly answers to this poll in (Western country of your choice).
Anyway, the encouraging points, from my point of view:
- awareness of broader issues (economy, loss of “local solidarity”, education) as a possible factor in crime, as opposed to reactionary or fictional partisan gripes.
- “emotionally unstable / random slashers, etc” and habitual petty criminals a much greater risk than international terrorist groups, which are quite reasonably placed at the back of the pack — hallelujah!
- “Drunk-driving traffic accidents, hit-and-runs and other dangerous driving” should be #1 focus of police efforts. I can’t be the only one who agrees law enforcement should be stricter in this area. Psychologically speaking, I would expect a tendency to favour more violent but infrequent crimes (murder, etc) over this, so I’m happily surprised that most Japanese seem to agree with me.

So in summary, while I don’t want to excuse any prejudicial view of foreigners, these polls seem to show a remarkably sane view of crime that I can only dream of seeing in my own home country.

]]> By: Caro http://whatjapanthinks.com/2012/08/30/illegal-immigrants-no-longer-a-major-public-order-threat/comment-page-1/#comment-250761 Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:54:51 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/?p=5078#comment-250761 Seems to me that the questions are different enough that you can’t really conclude that concern about foreigner crime is decreasing. The newer polling question asks people about a RISE in crime (whereas the first just asked about crime that ought to be addressed/investigated). Given that ~30% of people who feel crime is on the rise attribute it (at least in part) to foreign crime – and that works out to about 23% of all poll respondents – it’s still a rather grim statement about attitudes towards foreigners.

]]> By: Caro http://whatjapanthinks.com/2012/08/30/illegal-immigrants-no-longer-a-major-public-order-threat/comment-page-1/#comment-250760 Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:53:56 +0000 http://whatjapanthinks.com/?p=5078#comment-250760 Seems to me that the questions are different enough that you can’t really conclude that concern about foreigner crime is decreasing. The newer polling question asks people about a RISE in crime (whereas the first just asked about crime that ought to be addressed/investigated). Given that ~30% of people who feel crime is on the rise attribute it (at least in part) to foreign crime – and that works out to about 23% of all poll respondents – it’s still a rather grim statement about attitudes towards foreigners.

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