Police in Japan logged a record 2,181 child abuse cases in 2022, up from the previous record of 2,174 in 2021, while the number of domestic violence consultations and cases of stalking also hit record highs, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
Among child abuse cases, assaults accounted for 882, the largest group by type of abuse. There were also 326 cases of sex crimes such as forcible intercourse and indecency, 23 murder investigations and five cases of injury resulting in death.
The number of children referred to child consultation centers in suspected cases of abuse also hit a record high of 115,762, up 7.1%.
Of the suspected cases, some 70% involved psychological abuse, of which around half were domestic violence situations against family members carried out in front of children.
The number of domestic violence consultations also rose by 1,454 to 84,496, hitting a record high for the 19th consecutive year, police data showed.
Police made arrests or took other law enforcement action in 8,581 domestic violence cases, down by 122. They included one case of injury resulting in death and 116 attempted murder cases.
The number of cases handled by police for violating protection orders banning perpetrators from approaching victims fell by 23 to 46.
According to the NPA, the number of protection orders issued is on a downward trend. The reason may be that the domestic violence prevention law covers only physical abuse, and the government plans to revise the law for making psychological abuse illegal.
The number of stalking law violations handled by police rose by 91 from the previous year to 1,028, a record high since the law came into force in 2000, police data showed.
Of the total, 897 cases involved active stalking, while restraining order violations came to 131.
Meanwhile, police reviewed 1,728 cases of "revenge porn" — the act of posting explicit images of someone online as a form of retaliation. Such cases continue to trend up, with the figure now 2.6 times higher than it was in 2018.
About half of those behind such acts were between romantic partners, but friends and acquaintances that victims only knew online represented around 20% of cases.
