Are foreign tourists responsible for rises in crime?
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on January 23rd, 2008
Apparently that’s what many Japanese think:
At home, the government faces a longstanding ambivalence toward foreigners. A 2003 survey shows that, while 48 percent of those polled would like to see more foreign tourists, 32 percent don’t. About 90 percent of them blame increased tourism for a “rise in crimes committed by foreigners.”
Link.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Well, of course, bring more foreigners in and the number of crimes committed by foreigners will increase. What worries me is the possible implication that, but of course foreign crime is the problem, that foreigners commit more crimes, on average, than Japanese nationals.
The question is just plain stupid, though. It reminds me of an article that ran in the Yomiuri a couple years ago touting the fact that foreigners were responsible for over 99% of visa crime. Shocking! Wait. . .