Last year saw a record 2.74 million Penal Code violations, excluding traffic offenses, up 12 percent from 2000, but the arrest rate fell to a postwar low of 19.8 percent, the government reported Tuesday, adding that although foreigners committed a small percentage of the crimes, their offenses were models for Japanese offenders.
The number of Penal Code offenses was at a record high for the sixth consecutive year, according to the 2002 white paper on crime, compiled by the Justice Ministry's Research and Training Institute.
The total number of criminal offenses exceeded 3.58 million in 2001, up 10 percent, while the arrest rate for all criminal offenses was 38.8 percent, down 3.9 percentage points from a year earlier, it says.