--- title: Japan's Elderly Now Commit More Crime Than Its Teenagers description: Over 23,000 seniors have been caught breaking the law this year canonical: https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-17T03:18:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:26.114Z article:section: World og:title: Japan's Elderly Commit More Crimes Than Its Teens og:description: Over 23,000 seniors have been caught breaking the law this year. og:url: https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Japan's Elderly Commit More Crimes Than Its Teens twitter:description: Over 23,000 seniors have been caught breaking the law this year. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Japan's Elderly Now Commit More Crime Than Its Teenagers by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Jul 17, 2015 3:18 AM CUT by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Jul 17, 2015 3:18 AM CUT For the first time ever, Japan’s senior citizens are [responsible for more crime](http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33551146 "undefined") than its teenagers. More than 23,000 people over the age of 65 faced police action for unlawful activities during the first half of 2015, the BBC reported, citing Japan’s Kyodo news agency. In comparison, the number of criminals aged 14-19 was just under 20,000, a reversal of every year since the East Asian nation began releasing age-related crime data in 1989. More than a quarter of Japan’s population is now of retirement age, and crime rates among the elderly have reportedly risen by over 10% from last year’s figures despite a reduction in the country’s overall crime rate. Japan isn’t the only East Asian nation grappling with the sudden rise of geriatric lawbreakers, however, with neighbor South Korea — also home to swelling ranks of senior citizens — seeing a spike of nearly 40% between 2011 and 2013. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33551146 "undefined")\] ### The World's Top 10 Most Expensive Cities  1\. Singapore, Singapore Getty Images  2\. Paris, France Getty Images  3\. Oslo, Norway Getty Images  4\. Zurich, Switzerland Getty Images  5\. Sydney, Australia Getty Images  6\. Melbourne, Australia Getty Images  7\. Geneva, Switzerland Getty Images  8\. Copenhagen, Denmark Getty Images  9\. Hong Kong, China Getty Images  10\. Seoul, South Korea Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/"},"headline":"Japan's Elderly Now Commit More Crime Than Its Teenagers","datePublished":"2015-07-17T03:18:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:26.114Z","description":"Over 23,000 seniors have been caught breaking the law this year","url":"https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/","keywords":["Teenagers","Japan","South Korea","Elderly","senior citizens"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3962158/japan-elderly-crime-rate-teenagers/","name":"Japan's Elderly Now Commit More Crime Than Its Teenagers"}}]}] ```