Looking at the statistics from the NPA (in Japanese), we realise that among 20,007 people arrested, 11,282 were for offences, including 9,211 for immigration-related issues like overstaying their visa.

Thefts accounted for over 50% of the overall crimes (4,555 out of 8,725). No more than 477 (0,02%) of the total arrests were for vicious crimes, and they were mostly committed by Chinese (52%) and Brazilians (22%). Of the 477 vicious crimes, there were 61 murders, 34 rapes, 13 arsons and 369 robberies.

Where are foreign criminals from ?

Among the 20,007 people arrested in 2003 :

Considering only the 8,725 crimes (刑法犯), so not the offences such like visa overstaying, however, - 74,5% were from Asia - 17,7% were from South America - 2,2% were from North America (1,4% from USA) - 2% were from Europe - 1,8% were from Russia - 0,9% were from Africa - 0,8% were from Oceania

The following table gives the number of foreigners by nationality for the main countries represented in Japan. The foreign population is based on the number of residents (stats from the Japan Statistical Bureau for 2003) and visitors (stats from the JNTO for 2004) combined as shown below.

We will not take into account some of the main group of foreign residents in Japan due to a lack of information on the number of visitors. The countries affected are Peru, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran.

Number of foreign residents and visitors in Japan by nationality

Let us now calculated the crime and offence rates based on the total of residents and visitors for the main countries represented in Japan and each continent.

Number of crimes and offences committed in Japan by nationality

Crimes and offences rate in Japan by nationality

Highest rate of crimes/offences per country

Having a look at the statistics above, the highest rate of criminals and offenders combined by nationality is found respectively among Russians (0.871%), Chinese (0.860%), Thais (0.530%), Brazilians (0.428%) and Philippinos (0.409%). Considering continents, the highest crime and offence rate is however held by the Africans (0.954%).

The Japanese crime rate is 0.340%, which is similar to the Asian average of 0.314%, but about 10 times higher than that of Western countries, with Oceanians at 0.0044%, Europeans at 0.042% and North Americans at 0.029%.

The Koreans have the lowest crime and offence rate (0.086%) of any non-Western country, which is worth mentioning as they are the single largest group of foreigners in Japan, accounting for 1/3 of all foreign residents.

Highest rate of crimes only per country

If we concentrate on real crimes, we find a completely different ranking though. Iranians, Russians or Philippinos have been arrested for a much higher number of offences than crimes, for instance. We also see that Brazilians and Japanese were arrested for proportionally more crimes than offences. Here is the real crime rate :

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