The government's first white paper on crime victims says that 222 of 258 measures designed to help crime victims have been implemented. The basic law for crime victims, which took effect in April 2005, requires the government to report annually on the progress of support for crime victims. It is hoped that release of the white paper will give impetus to government and society's efforts to protect and promote the rights of crime victims.
The white paper broke down the schedule for implementing relevant measures into four groups ranging from "already implemented" to "to be implemented in three years." It says that by December 2008 a system will begin treating the most severe cases of posttraumatic stress disorder caused by crimes -- a measure that takes the longest preparation.
Measures already implemented include giving priority in selecting applications for public housing to people who are no longer able to live in their residences as a result of becoming crime victims and expanding eligibility for crime-victim grants. For their part, grant allocations appear inadequate when compared with the situation overseas. In fiscal 2005, about 1.1 billion yen in such grants were given to 394 people. This compares with an annual equivalent of 4.59 billion yen in the United States and 4.4 billion yen in Britain.