Japan police officer pens stories to expose reality of fraud
"Officer K's Fraud Files" released online by the Kanagawa prefectural police includes a story of a retired man who falls victim to an investment scam perpetrated via a matching app, ending up losing his savings as well as distancing himself from his family.
The initiative comes amid a rise in so-called "special fraud" cases in Japan. A record-high 71.8 billion yen ($485 million) was stolen in some 21,000 cases detected in 2024 involving scammers posing as police investigators or relatives, among others, according to the National Police Agency.
In Kanagawa Prefecture alone, 6.6 billion yen was stolen, despite efforts by the police to raise awareness by handing out flyers and giving crime prevention lectures.
The prefectural police released the first story in June with officials in the crime prevention team hoping such an approach would be a more effective way of showing the ways scams are perpetrated.
A 39-year-old officer called "K," an avid reader, was chosen to write the stories, although the officer had no professional writing experience.
K remembers seeing an elderly woman who apologized repeatedly after she was blamed by her family for being swindled out of millions of yen, the official said.
The second story, released in late July, portrays a university student who turns himself in to police after taking on "dark part-time work," accepting jobs from a remote figure who orders him to be an accomplice in increasingly serious crimes.
"Fraudsters are very clever in their methods," K said. "People may think 'Why did they fall for it?' but I want people to think of these stories as something that could happen to them."
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Tokyo Weekender
14 hours ago
- Tokyo Weekender
Hiker Attacked by Brown Bear on Hokkaido Mountain
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The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Officer blew whistle on illegal acts before false charges against Japan machinery maker
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According to the ruling, the inspector in question deceived Shimada, who was denying the illegal export allegations, and created a deposition stating that he had admitted to the charges. After Shimada checked the content of the deposition and protested, the inspector shredded the document. The court ruled that the creation of the deposition was "illegal as it employed deceptive methods." The verdict pointed out that "it was inconceivable that (the deposition) would be disposed of so easily," which aligned with the assessment of the Public Security Bureau, and that the MPD's claims that the document was scrapped due to negligence was "unnatural." Regarding the deposition's disposal, a committee for the inquest of prosecution ruled in February that it was unreasonable not to indict the inspector. While the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office once again dropped charges against the inspector over suspected damaging of documents for government use, it has launched an investigation into charges of the creation and use of false official documents with seals in connection with the creation of the report stating that the deposition was scrapped due to negligence. Upon an inquiry by the Mainichi, the MPD responded, "Due to the nature of whistleblowing report, we will refrain from answering based on the assumption of either that it took place or that it did not."
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Hiker missing after bear attack in Hokkaido's Shiretoko
A hiker went missing near a mountain in Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula after a bear attack, police said Aug. 14. At around 11:10 a.m., Hokkaido Prefectural Police received an emergency call from a hiker saying that a friend had been attacked by a brown bear near Mount Rausu, the highest peak in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage peninsula in the town of Shari. According to police, the missing man was hiking in a party of two. The fellow hiker explained to police, "I lost sight of him along with the bear." The police have dispatched a search party with hunters. (Japanese original by Takeshi Honda, Kitami Bureau, and Yukika Wada, Hokkaido News Department)
