TOKYO: Elderly people caught shoplifting in Japan’s capital city have outnumbered teenagers for the first time since records began, a report said yesterday.
A quarter of the people held on suspicion of the crime last year were at least 65 amid warnings of their increasing isolation.
“Even though the number of arrests has been declining, the ratio of elderly people is on the rise,” the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said. “Our survey shows that elderly shoplifters tend to be lonely, having no one to talk to, and no hobby to enjoy,” he said.
Statistics showed 3,321 people aged 65 or above were held, accounting for 24.5 percent of the total, while those aged 19 or younger made up 23.6 percent, with 3,195 individual arrests. Both figures are slightly down in absolute terms from 2011.
It was the first time since comparable data had been collected that the elderly made up a higher proportion of suspected thieves, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said.
Around a quarter of 128 million population is aged 65 or older, and Japan has a far-below replacement birthrate of an average 1.39 children for every woman.
There are regular reports of bodies lying unfound for weeks or months after a single elderly person has died. Commentators say the phenomenon is a result of the fraying of familial ties as Japan has modernised.
A government survey last week found 3.5 million elderly women and 1.4 million elderly men live alone. AFP
