Under surveillance

Date: 08/06/2005
Source: asahi.com
Author: YUICHI KOYAMA

At Inuyama Moegigaoka, a newly developed housing project in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, the watchful eye of a security camera never lets up.

Eight security cameras monitor entrances and even the adjacent park around the clock.

The selling point for the 300 new housing lots? Peace of mind.

Public anxiety over increasing crime is one reason residents want the intense scrutiny-which some would call an invasion of privacy.

In the past several years, the media have intensely covered heinous crimes, including the brutal slayings of families, the kidnappings of young children, and even injuries and deaths perpetrated by intruders at elementary schools.

Moreover, burglaries are on the rise. According to the National Police Agency, about 38,000 homes were broken into in 2004, a 3.4-fold increase from 10 years before.

The Nagoya Railroad Group built the Inuyama Moegigaoka housing complex, and the first lots went on sale last fall. The surveillance system cost about 10 million yen, according to the group.

Residents can check the Internet to see the images taken by the cameras, and an administrative center stores the video images for a week-just in case.

Moegigaoka is one of many communities installing surveillance systems. Local governments are also providing subsidies for surveillance systems on the assumption they help reduce crimes.

In fiscal 2003 and 2004, Tokyo subsidized surveillance cameras for 40 shopping districts. Combined with subsidies provided by municipalities and wards, the amount came to about 240 million yen. Osaka and Fukuoka have similar subsidy systems.

According to Mitsubishi Electric Corp., sales of security cameras are steadily growing. Demand is particularly rising among schools and businesses, such as pachinko parlors, with a lot of customers.

Demand is also growing for biometric personal identification systems that check physical attributes such as fingerprints.

Fuji Keizai Co., a private market-research company, estimates the demand for these kinds of security systems will reach about 400 billion yen in 2006.

But are security cameras really effective in preventing crimes? Possibly.

Masahide Maeda, professor of criminal law at Tokyo Metropolitan University, studied what happened when police surveillance cameras were installed in Tokyo's notorious Kabukicho entertainment district. He used data compiled by the Tokyo metropolitan police.

According to the data, both the number of serious crimes, such as arson and robbery, and less serious ones, including break-ins and theft, dropped by more than 60 percent from 2000 to 2002, before and after police installed security cameras.

"I believe they were quite effective," Maeda said.

During the same period, the number of serious crimes doubled in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, where there were no police cameras.

The results suggest that criminals who were formerly active in Kabukicho might have moved to other areas, Maeda said.

Toshimaru Ogura, an economics professor at Toyama University who has written a book on surveillance society, said: "Security cameras themselves are not effective in eliminating crimes. What is really needed is a way to reduce the number of people who take to crime because they feel alienated from society."

There is a fine line between surveillance and violation of privacy. While some say surveillance is necessary to secure safety, many complain that it makes society tense and oppressive.

Still, technological advancement is accelerating the trend.

"The division between watchers and the watched may advance. When that happens, we could find ourselves living in an undisguised hierarchical society," said journalist Takao Saito.

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