MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - Osaka police failed to report more than 81,000 crimes over a period of five years through 2012 to improve the Japanese prefecture’s crime rate figures, The Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday.
All of the 65 Osaka police stations did not report crimes to the prefectural police department before the data were submitted to the National Police Agency. The newspaper said 97 officers had been reprimanded.
The prefectural police department’s Criminal Investigation Administration Division revealed that police stations in Osaka underreported 81,307 crimes over 2008 to 2012, including 22,042 in 2011 alone. Every year, 4-13 percent of criminal cases were not reported, the newspaper said.
Theft accounted for 86 percent of all unreported crimes.
The investigation by the prefectural police concluded that senior officers did not issue instructions to conceal crimes.
Osaka Prefecture had the lowest crime rate in Japan for 10 years through 2009. In 2010, Tokyo had the nation’s highest tally of crimes, but in light of the unreported crime information it appears that Osaka held the top position through 2012, The Asahi Shimbun said.
