CRIME IN JAPAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3000, 24 September 1908, Page 4

CRIME IN JAPAN.

Japan apparently has not yet learned how to organise a police force of Western efficiency. A correspondent of the London "Standard" sends a disquieting account of the increase in lawlessness in Japan. During the last three years, crimes of violence have increased to an alarming extent, foreigners no longer find it safe to wander alone about the environs of Japanese cities, and even in the public street foreign women have been relieved of their purses in broad daylight. Piracy is increasing along the coasts and in the Inland Sea. The police system seems to be very antiquated. The Japanese policeman does not patrol the streets, but stays in one spot, a place often difficult to find, and the criminal feels pretty secure in operating at some distance from it. The nightwatchmen go about banging two pieces of wocd together, which, of course, gives criminals ample warning of their approach. The police seem afraid of the criminal element, and not without reason, fur the Japanese malefactor is apt to draw a knife and use it without compunction, while in the mass he can make things very ugly for authority.