Sunday, May 4, 2008

On the surface, Japan appears to be a relatively crime-free and comparatively safe society. One crime, though, is on the rise — shoplifting. A recent survey by the Japan Book Publishers Association for Information Infrastructure Development found that nearly ¥4 billion in books are stolen every year, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2003. Countries with higher rates of more serious crimes may find these figures and the type of crime inconsequential or even slightly amusing. Taken as an indication of a shift in Japanese social values, however, shoplifting is cause for concern.

Particularly worrisome is the fact that most of the shoplifting is being done by young people. Minors commit the majority of the thefts (40 percent), though housewives (15 percent) and, increasingly, people over 65 (the most common crime for that age group) are lifting their share as well. These reported figures do not reflect the actual percentages, though, since many of the incidents are never reported or go unrecorded after the suspects write a letter of apology. The extent of the problem is startling.

The seriousness of shoplifting lies somewhere between "borrowing" an umbrella from a public rack and bicycle theft, one of Japan's most common crimes. The main reason given by those caught in the act of stealing books are not laziness, drunkenness or selfishness, but rather an intention to resell the books for cash. The romantic image of the starving student who truly wants to read an overpriced classic is far from the case. The main object is money. Books, like other objects left unattended, are easy targets.

The attitude that shoplifting is a "victimless crime" or a "writeoff for big companies" greatly oversimplifies the issue. Even though the stolen books amount to a small percentage of sales, the consequences can be much greater. For one thing, those most likely to lose income are not the large chain stores, which can afford surveillance cameras, IC tags, and other preventive measures. Hurt the most are small and medium-size bookstores that cannot afford to protect their stock.

An estimated 4,000 small to medium-size booksellers have shut their doors from 2001 to 2007 as well. That is not all due to shoplifters, of course, as online bookstores have taken most of the customers away. Shoplifting books, though, is the small insult to the larger economic injury. When bookstores disappear from shopping streets, station fronts and pedestrian malls, it is a loss of one more outlet for distributing books, and with it, written culture. This epidemic of petty thievery damages one of Japan's most cherished values — respect for the written word.

In the digital age, the boundaries of buying and owning texts of different sorts have indeed become fuzzy. The Internet makes untold numbers of texts instantly available. The Japanese custom of tachiyomi, standing and reading in stores, is a well-established custom.

Cell-phone photos taken of book pages have become a common form of digital shoplifting, but all those are still different from actually tucking a book into one's bag or clothes and walking out the front door without paying. Even amid these various customs and technologies, stealing is still stealing.

Bookstores and publishing organizations are right to protest, though their focus seems more with profit margins than social morality. Shoplifting should not be placed on a young person's record forever or be treated so severely as to ruin one's current life, but neither should it be ignored.

The attitude of getting "something for nothing" runs counter to the values of a society where lost wallets are still usually returned, people work hard for their money, and trust still remains central to most public interactions.

The answer to book shoplifting may be technological in part, with improved methods for safeguarding stores, but a change in attitude is needed as well. The public library system needs updating to become more convenient and to keep in line with changes in the Internet. Secondhand bookstores need to reconsider making their buyback policies stricter. Police need to establish consistent guidelines for handling shoplifters. A piecemeal approach by police to warning first-time shoplifters only encourages repeat offenders.

Bookstore managers, too, might do more to encourage the culture of reading, since bookstores have long served as important pillars of Japan's highly literate society. When bookstores become profit-driven vehicles rather than places to learn and consider, books become just one more consumer item, instead of the rich and meaningful experience reading them becomes. In highly literate Japan, book shoplifting is not only a crime; it's an act of cultural disrespect.

One would hope that somehow soon, with enough effort and attention, book shoplifting just might be changed back to book reading instead.

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