Behind Japan Files

The Numbers File

Japan publishes the figures. What the English-speaking world repeats is often a different number, and the gap is where the story is.

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Part 1

A photograph of the entrance hall of a Japanese house in the late afternoon, empty of people. On a low wooden telephone stand sits a cream-coloured cordless telephone with its handset lifted out of the cradle and lying beside it, its coiled cord hanging over the edge of the stand. Around the telephone are a spiral notepad with a ballpoint pen laid across it, a pair of reading glasses folded closed, a shallow dish holding keys and a cylindrical seal case, and a lace mat. Behind the stand a shoe cupboard carries a folded newspaper, slippers are arranged in pairs on the step up into the house, and a frosted glass front door lets in flat grey daylight. No people are present and no text is legible anywhere. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real house, case or person.

Crimes & Cases

Is Crime Rising in Japan?

Recorded crime has risen four years running and passed its pre-pandemic level. The growth is almost all fraud, the biggest single method is impersonating a police officer, and the age group reporting it most often is people in their thirties.

Aug 21, 2026

Part 2

A photograph of a narrow residential back street in a Japanese town on an overcast morning, closed off across its width by plain striped barrier tape strung between two folding stands. Beyond the tape the street is empty: cracked asphalt, a low concrete block wall, a rusted bicycle, a drinks vending machine, grey utility poles carrying bundled cables, and small tiled-roof houses pressed close together. Two figures in dark trousers and pale shirts stand just inside the tape with their backs to the camera, one writing on a clipboard, the other looking away down the street; no faces and no insignia are visible. A folded blue plastic sheet lies on the ground beside them. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real place, case or person.

Crimes & Cases

How Many Murders Go Unsolved in Japan?

Japan is said to solve 99 percent of its murders. In 2021 the official rate was 101 percent, and the police explain why it can exceed 100. Its most famous killing is not in that figure at all.

Aug 18, 2026

Part 3

A photograph of the edge of a small Japanese country town in the late afternoon. A narrow asphalt farm road runs away from the camera on the left, its surface cracked and patched with tar, with no guardrail. Beside it a concrete-lined irrigation channel about a metre wide holds shallow standing water with patches of green algae and a small rusted metal sluice gate. Beyond the channel lie rice paddies at mid-growth, a bent galvanised fence panel, a black plastic irrigation pipe, concrete utility poles carrying bundled cables, a faded blue tarpaulin folded over a low concrete block wall, a corrugated iron shed, and small houses with grey tiled roofs. No people are present. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real place, case or person.

Crimes & Cases

How Many People Go Missing in Japan?

Japanese police took 82,563 missing person reports in 2024. Half of them were found the same day, the single largest cause is dementia, and the rules tell the officer who finds you not to phone the family that reported you.

Aug 19, 2026

Part 4

A photograph looking down a dim domestic hallway in an ordinary Japanese home. At the end of the hallway a plain sliding door is closed, with a thin line of light showing along its lower edge. On the floor immediately outside the door sits a small wooden tray holding a covered bowl and a glass of water, placed and untouched. The hallway is bare: a worn wooden floor, plain walls, a coat hook with nothing on it. No people are present. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real home.

Society

Why Are There So Many Hikikomori in Japan?

Japan estimates 1.46 million people aged 15 to 64 (one in fifty) live in social withdrawal, and the middle-aged now outnumber the young. How a condition named for teenagers grew old indoors.

Aug 6, 2026

Part 5

A paymaster's desk in a Japanese government office of the early 1870s, photographed from directly above. A wooden soroban abacus lies at the upper left. Four string-bound ledgers are stacked closed in the centre. To the right are a black lacquer inkstone with a brush across it, a glass ink bottle and a steel-nib pen. Below are a cup of tea half drunk, a pair of folded spectacles, a brass ruler, a bundle of tally slips under a clip, a paper packet tied with string, and eight silver coins. The desk is scratched and ring-stained. Nobody is present.

The Outside World

How Much Did Japan Pay Its Foreign Advisers?

The English-speaking web says their salaries were 33.7 per cent of Japan's national budget in 1874. The Ministry of Finance's own table puts that year's budget at 62,169,344 yen, which makes the figure 3.7 per cent. The real gap was inside the payroll: a doctor drew 344.9 yen a month, a menial worker 20.1.

Aug 26, 2026

Part 6

The inside of a small Japanese apartment entrance, photographed from within the room. A steel door with a letter slot stands closed. On the concrete floor of the sunken entrance below it lie a folded newspaper and several envelopes, left where they fell through the slot. A pair of men's worn leather shoes sits squared against the raised wooden step, toes pointing at the door. A clear plastic umbrella leans against the wall to the right. Weak daylight comes from a frosted window on the left. Nobody is present.

Society

How Many People Die Alone in Japan?

Japan's police counted 76,020 people who died alone at home in 2024. The Cabinet Office then defined the word for the first time and put the figure at 21,856. Four in five were men, and the largest single group was aged 70 to 74.

Aug 28, 2026

Part 7

A photograph of a small rented room used for a yoga class, seen from the entrance step where five pairs of shoes are lined up: white sneakers, brown loafers, black flats and grey slip-ons. Inside, pale laminate flooring, two cream yoga mats still unrolled, rolled mats and folded blankets against the wall, a wiped whiteboard on a stand, a low table with a kettle, paper cups and a small red first-aid kit, a closed curtain across an alcove at the back, and a webcam on a tripod pointing at the empty floor. Late afternoon light falls from a window on the left. Nobody is present. AI-generated photo illustration; not a photograph of any real room, event or person.

Cults & New Religions

Does Aum Shinrikyo Still Exist?

Yes. The figure English Wikipedia still carries dates from a 2005 report. Japan makes the organisation report its members every three months, 105 times so far; the latest total is about 1,600.

Aug 30, 2026

Part 8

An empty examination room in a Japanese institution, photographed from the doorway before the day's work. A wide stainless steel table stands dry and bare in the middle of the room, tilted slightly toward a drain, with a surgical lamp folded back and switched off above it. In the foreground a scratched steel trolley carries a box of unopened gloves, a metal clipboard with the form face down, a folded measuring tape, a small camera on a short tripod with the lens cap on, and a hand torch. A floor scale stands to the left, a closed steel cabinet with unlabelled drawers behind. Pale green tiles run to waist height, a heavy door with a small square window is shut, and a wall clock reads a few minutes past seven. Nobody is present and nothing is on the table.

Crimes & Cases

How Many Bodies Does Japan Autopsy?

Japanese police handled 204,562 bodies in 2025 and autopsied 9.9 per cent of them. The rate fell because the caseload grew, not because autopsies did. A 2011 police report proposed 20 per cent.

Sep 1, 2026

Part 9

A wide photograph of a plain civic room, taken from behind the last row of chairs. About twenty-five adults in winter coats sit in rows facing away from the camera, so that only the backs of their heads, their shoulders and their collars are visible; no face is turned towards the room. Grey moulded stacking chairs on chrome legs stand empty in the nearest rows and at the edges, a folded umbrella hangs from one chair back and a pale canvas bag rests on the floor beside a pair of shoes. At the far end a member of staff stands at a wooden lectern, reduced to a dark silhouette against tall windows with half-open vertical blinds, with a long table and three empty chairs behind. On a side table in the near right corner sit a closed wooden box with a slot in its lid and a neat stack of small paper slips lying face down. Sheets pinned to a noticeboard on the right wall are too soft to read.

Justice & Law

Does 67.6% of Japan Refuse Jury Duty?

English-language accounts say almost 70 per cent of Japanese citizens refuse jury duty. The Supreme Court figure counts applications to be excused that a court granted, not refusals.

Sep 1, 2026

Part 10

A small single-occupancy room in a plain institution, photographed from the doorway in the late afternoon. An elderly man sits on the floor with his back to the camera, facing a low wooden desk against the far wall. He wears an unmarked light grey-blue cotton work uniform, his back stooped and his hair short and white, and his face is entirely out of view. On the desk are a plastic cup and a few paperbacks laid flat so that no title can be read. A shelf above the desk holds a folded change of clothes, and a cloth cap hangs from a hook on the wall. A futon and a thin blanket are folded neatly on the tatami to the left. A window set high on the right wall, above head height and divided by thin metal glazing bars, throws a bright rectangle of low daylight across the matting, where a pair of reading glasses and a folded towel lie on the floor. One panel of the tatami is worn paler than the rest, in the place where someone habitually sits. Nobody else is present.

Crimes & Cases

How Many Elderly People Are in Japanese Prisons?

Japan held 5,085 sentenced prisoners aged 65 and over at the end of 2024, down from 5,624 in 2020. A second official table says 2,049. Both are correct, and they answer different questions. What the surveys asked about why, and what they never asked.

Sep 5, 2026

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