A review of crime prevention activities in a Japanese local government area since 2008: Beautiful Windows Movement in Adachi Ward

Kimihiro Hino,Themis Chronopoulos

doi:10.1057/s41300-021-00118-w

Kimihiro Hino, Themis Chronopoulos

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41300-021-00118-w

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Abstract

There have been limited reports on crime prevention policies by local governments in Japan, which is one of the safest countries in the world. This article reviews crime prevention policies in Adachi Ward, which used to have the highest crime rates in Tokyo. The government of Adachi Ward introduced the “Beautiful Windows Movement” (BWM) in 2008. Based on BWM, Adachi Ward implemented various programs and interventions based on two different aspects: the aspect of preventing minor crimes and disorder in partnership with the police referring to the Broken Windows Theory and the aspect of literally making the Ward beautiful in cooperation with citizen volunteers. After 11 years of implementing BWM, the number of recorded crimes in Adachi Ward declined the most in Tokyo and residents’ sense of security improved significantly. This case study highlights the advantage of the duality of BWM to both reduce crimes and improve residents’ sense of security.

Highlights

Local government and crime preventionLocal governments take responsibility for planning and delivery of crime prevention due to their ability to mobilize local resources; to build partnerships, and to understand local problems (Clancey et al 2012)
Especially in urban areas, have the possibility of affecting that image negatively; it is imperative for local governments to take crime prevention measures that make residents and visitors feel safer
We focused on measures against bicycle thefts because they represented the highest proportion of crime; the Ward viewed reduction in bicycle theft, which directly links to the reduction in total number of crimes, as a way to dispel the negative image of the Ward (Kondo 2011)

Summary

Introduction

Local governments take responsibility for planning and delivery of crime prevention due to their ability to mobilize local resources; to build partnerships, and to understand local problems (Clancey et al 2012). Especially in urban areas, have the possibility of affecting that image negatively; it is imperative for local governments to take crime prevention measures that make residents and visitors feel safer. To date, there has been a limited focus on crime prevention measures at the local government level in Japan. A few studies have reported specific measures for crime prevention in Japan (Komiya 2011; Hino and Schneider 2013; Hino 2018), none has comprehensively reported crime prevention policies by Japanese local governments

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