I have several friends in Japan, and they tell me a lot of crime, especially sex crimes, basically go unreported. Basically the cops are under political pressure to keep crime stats low, so there’s a high barrier to what they’ll actually do something about. Usually anything that invoves a fatality, however, is treated as a national tragedy.
The same group also gripes considerably about the school system saying that they actually prefer the US model. (I couldn’t believe it when I heard that one!) I asked them why and they thought their own schools were too antiquated, emphasised memorization over analytical thinking, and were highly inflexible. No doubt once they put their kids in public schools here, they’ll change their mind!
They have a real problem in Japan in that the older generation suffered in their work to such an extent that the younger one, spoiled from the riches derived from that work, doesn’t want to follow in their parents’ footsteps. It’s sort of an extreme view – either one completely dedicates their life to their work, or they become a cockroach living at home until they’re 40. Many take the cockroach approach, and don’t make themselves useful. As a result, you get a very low birth rate and declining prosperity in a society that is racially homogenious and very reluctant to allow non-Japanese immigration. They need a social revolution beyond the Otaku one that has taken hold of the youth now.
