Japan's domestic violence cases, anti-stalking orders hit record high in 2018

The number of reported domestic Violence cases rose to a record high in Japan in 2018, which marks the 15th successive year the figure has increased since record keeping began, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday.

According to the agency, there were 9,088 cases of domestic Violence reported in 2018, rising by 666 cases compared to a year earlier.

The number of reported cases of domestic Violence that were classified as attempted murder stood at 109 in 2018, the NPA said.

There were two domestic Violence cases in the year that led to murder, the agency also said.

The NPA added that the number of people contacting local police about instances of domestic Violence jumped dramatically in the recording period to 77,482 cases, which is an increase of 5,027 cases when compared to a year earlier.

According to the NPA, possible reasons for the increase in the number of reported cases of domestic Violence and rising cases of people contacting the police, could be an increase in awareness about the social malady.

Compared to the past, anthropologists here have said that individuals, including neighbors, family members, friends and colleagues, were more likely to intervene somehow in situations where domestic Violence is suspected, including contacting local authorities.

The majority of victims of domestic Violence in the recording period were women at 80 percent of all reported cases.

The number of male victims, however, surged threefold between 2014 and 2018 to 15,964 reported cases, the agency said.

In terms of age, the highest segment of victims were in their 30s at 28.2 percent of all cases. Victims in their 40s comprised 24.1 percent of the total.

Those in their 20s accounted for the lowest proportion in 2018, at 23.4 percent of all reported cases.

The NPA said that spouses or former spouses were the perpetrators of domestic Violence in 76.1 percent of all reported case in 2018.

In 2017 the anti-stalking law here was revised to empower the police and authorities to issue restraining orders without first handing out warnings to the perpetrators.

The NPA said that the stricter anti-stalking law may have led to the number of reported cases in Japan dropping by 161 a year earlier to 2,464 cases in 2018.

One of the reported cases did, however, lead to murder, the agency said.

The vast majority of stalking victims were women, said the NPA, accounting for around 90 percent of all reported cases, with the number of victims totaling 18,949 in 2018.

The police agency said that 43.3 percent of the stalkers were predominantly current or former boyfriends or girlfriends, compared to reported acts of stalking carried out by strangers, which stood at 7.5 percent in the recording year.

In cases where the unknown stalkers could not be identified, the agency suggested that the growth of social media and its use could be responsible for this figure.

The NPA also added that in terms of the number of consultations dealt with by police and public safety authorities regarding instances of stalking the number had dropped in 2018 from a year earlier.

The agency said there were 1,523 fewer consultations, with the figure standing at 21,556 consultations and reports.

The figure for 2018, however, marked the sixth successive year it has topped the 20,000 mark.

Authorities here, meanwhile, issued 1,157 orders against acts of stalking in 2018, marking a new record high.

This was a 70 percent increase in the issuance of such orders compared to a year earlier, the NPA said.