Technical terms for public safety include “perceived public safety” and “exponential public safety”. Perceived public safety refers to the sense and subjective sense of public safety. Exponential public safety refers to public safety expressed quantitatively and statistically objectively (such as the number of crimes and arrest rate).

According to data from the National Police Agency, the number of criminal offenses reported in Japan has continued to decline since peaking in 2002. In other words, public safety was at its worst in 2002, and has generally improved since then.
However, according to a survey conducted by the National Police Agency in October last year, an increasing number of people answered that ”the public safety has worsened recently,” indicating that the perceived public safety is deteriorating.

The documents suggest that the background to this is the occurrence of serious incidents that have caused anxiety among the public, such as the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and violent incidents involving ”dark part-timers” using social media.

It is strange that even though the index of public safety is decreasing, the perceived public safety is increasing. One possibility is that the current state of crime is different from that of the past, and people may find it easier to relate to it. For example, the risk of becoming a victim of burglary or robbery can be reduced to some extent if individuals take precautions. On the other hand, indiscriminate murders, cyber crimes, and special fraud committed by individuals such as Lone Wolf occur in unexpected ways, so there are limits to the measures that individuals can take.
For these reasons, it is thought that changes in crime are leading to a worsening of perceived public safety. When public safety deteriorates, whether it’s perceived public safety or exponential public safety, it becomes a major barrier to people’s ability to live a happy life.

There are no people who feel that society is a scary place and yet are active in it. The deterioration of security will only serve to deactivate society.
The difficulty with perceived public safety is that public safety measures are difficult to implement. In addition to changes in crime trends, it is also due to individual beliefs, making it difficult to implement effective improvement measures.
However, perceived safety is an issue that must be improved. New security measures are required. (Kei Kitajima)