Crime surges in Japan as 'shady part-time jobs' ensnare youth

PM Ishiba has made the eradication of 'yamibaito' a top policy priority

- Walter Sim

TOKYO - One of the safest countries in the world has been hit by a tidal wave of crime. In Japan, hardly a week has gone by since October without news reports urging people to secure their homes.

This is due to the rise of yamibaito - shady part-time work that promises easy money, through job ads on social media, anonymous text messages or even references from friends.

The work, however, is illegal. Job applicants are often recruited into violent burglaries, besides murder, armed robbery, scams, fraud and drug trafficking.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has made eradicating yamibaito a top policy priority, saying in a speech on Nov 29: "Recently, not a day goes by without seeing a report in the media of robberies or fraud involving so-called 'shady part-time jobs'.

"Such crimes threaten the values and morals cherished in Japanese society, including compassion towards others and honest effort, and must not be tolerated."

National Police Agency commissioner-general Yasuhiro Tsuyuki told reporters on Dec 5 that about seven in 10 yamibaito runners are aged below 30, with youth often asked to perform dangerous crimes.

Many of those ensnared are disenfranchised and impressionable youth, some laden with debt or stricken by poverty, while others aspire to a glamorous lifestyle.

This includes fourth-year undergraduate Masaki Saen, 23, who broke into a house and attempted to rob a man in his 70s by strangling him. Saen reportedly wanted to buy a computer, but was so ridden with guilt that he turned himself in to the police on Oct 30.