To paraphrase the Stones, summer's here and the time is right for stealing. Or, at least, that's what the National Police Agency thinks. Incidents of shoplifting rise during the summer months, apparently because of all those minors with nothing constructive to do after school lets out. The NPA has produced a public service announcement stating unequivocally that "shoplifting is a crime" and arranged for it to be shown in movie theaters before screenings of the new Studio Ghibli animated movie "Kari-gurashi no Arietty" (The Borrowers), assuming that all those bored, itchy-fingered kids will be in the audience. The PSA takes the curious position that youngsters, particularly elementary school and junior high school students, don't know that manbiki (shoplifting) is a hanzai (crime).

The NPA seems slightly behind the curve on this one, according to a recent report on NHK Tokyo's Friday night news feature program, "Tokuho Shutoken" (Capital Special Report), which offered statistics showing that most shoplifting arrests involve adults. Fifteen years ago, it was mostly minors who stole things from retailers, but adult shoplifting subsequently skyrocketed, and last year there were 30 percent more arrests of people over 20. In fact, elderly people make up a good percentage of those arrested.

The reasons for this rise are many and not particularly difficult to comprehend. The main concern for retailers is how to prevent thefts from happening in their stores. The NHK report said that shoplifting in Tokyo alone accounted for business losses of ¥67 billion in 2009.