Where has the people's safety in the borderless society gone?

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 24–27

Security Camera Network, Privacy Protection and Community Safety

Where has the people’s safety in the borderless society gone? Naoki Yoshihara* Tohoku University, 27-1 Kawauchi, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8576 Japan Recevied November 3, 2009; revised December 2, 2009; accepted December 10, 2009

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the existent of the people’s safety in the borderless society in Japan. Three boundaries within Japanese society that had previously been maintained regarding security have collapsed greatly now. In this paper, the researcher proposes a scenario of ‘safety’ after the collapse of the safety dogma that could emerge by accepting the differences in others, opposing various crimes, and rebuilding the crime prevention system distorted by the visualism through the recovery of the five senses. © 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Keywords: Safety; people’s perceptions; borderless society; safety dogma; visualism

1. The people’s perception that security is deteriorating and crime is increasing Globalization has exerted various influences on local societies. They can be roughly divided in the three types: the incorporation of local culture into globalization, the return of local culture from globalization, and the interaction of both. No matter what type of influence comes into play, various situations that have not been seen so far will begin to appear in local societies, along with the development of globalization. One such situation is the movement to return to the safety and security that had existed among people prior to outside influences. Lately, the concern for personal safety in Japan has increased drastically. It can even be said that the uneasiness that has developed is a social phenomenon. Until quite recently Japan was considered the safest society in the world. However, according to the public opinion poll concerning security that the Office of Public Relations conducted in December, 2007, 52.6% of the respondents answered the question ‘Do you think that present day Japan is a country where one can live safely and at ease?’ as ‘definitely no’ and ‘possibly no’. In addition, 84.3% of the people answered the question ‘Do you think that the security of Japan has improved in the last ten years?’ as ‘it worsened’ and ‘it worsened somewhat’ (See, Table.1). The people's perception that the security is deteriorating surely has heightened. A variety of factors are thought to be causing this change in perception. The main one is that the ratio of arrests to the number of criminal offenses has steadily gotten worse. In the Police White Paper 2008 version, it was pointed

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-22-795-7690 E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.01.007

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Naoki Yoshihara / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2 (2010) 24–27

out that the number of reported criminal acts increased from 12,725 in 1998 to 16,922 in 2007. However, the ratio of arrests decreased from 84.1% in 1998 to 60.2% in 2007(See, Table.2).

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Researchers postulate that this deterioration in public security caused the people’s perception of security to deteriorate. However, some researchers believe that the people’s perception that the security is deteriorating is one that was created by manipulating the statistics by those in power, and this perception was amplified by biased information presented in the mass media. They argue that in reality, the number of crimes has not increased and rapid deterioration of the security has not occurred either. Certainly, it is interesting to note that 95.5% of the people responded, ‘It is often taken up on the television and the radio’ when asked whether they were likely to become interested in public security issues in the above-mentioned Public opinion poll concerning security. What should be noted here is not that Japanese society is no longer safe, but that the system that supports a past safety dogma swings widely with social upheaval. Even if criminal offense is taken up as a factor, it is not a quantitative amount but a qualitative transformation that should be understood as the problem. 2. Three boundaries and the safety dogma When thinking about the changes of the safety dogma, it is important to note that three boundaries within Japanese society that have previously been maintained regarding security have collapsed greatly now. First, there was a temporal boundary. In the past, the Japanese were able to have safe and untroubled living conditions by separating the night from the daytime. Public peace was maintained through the widely held perception that going

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out at night into the scary lacquer blackness was taboo. But, due to technological advances, a world of excessive light without the night has emerged. That is the appearance of the artificial daylight in the 24-hour cities. Therefore, the safety dogma maintained by fearing the night, and assuming it to be of another world has collapsed. Second, the spatial boundary separating distinct areas is as doubtful now as the temporal boundary. So far, the downtown (center) and the residential areas (suburbs) played peculiar roles to each other in the metabolism of the city. However, the borders where the downtown and the residential areas were divided have become vague with progress, expansion, and the deepening of the 24-hour city. It has become impossible to keep the public peace maintained by the separation of residential areas and the fear of going to downtown at night. The safety zone is lost for people, and, thus, the safety dogma doesn't exist. In other words, people cannot help losing the safety zone and thus begin to fall into ‘the perception that the security is deteriorating’, when downtown is no longer considered ‘the World on the other side’ at night. The third boundary where the society had been partitioned into a ‘table society’ and an ‘underground community (or outlaw)’ becomes vague, as the system of a 24-hour city extends to every corner of the society. When this boundary was still active, the ‘underground community’ was the place where the people's safety dogmas existed. However, today, the ‘underground community’ appears ahead of the ‘table society’ and is not ‘the World on the other side.’ Thus, the ‘underground community’ which has been imprisoned by the ‘table society’ is recognized that it is not a safety zone any longer, and threatens safety. The above-mentioned collapse of the three boundaries has allowed crime that was once limited by night and confined to the downtown to expand into daytime, residential areas and the ‘table world,’ and then was obviously accompanied by qualitative changes. The crimes acknowledged by people now are not enclosed and concealed by night and confined to the downtown areas as before. Therefore, such crimes prompted the collapse of the safety dogma, and caused the perception that the security is deteriorating ’further. 3. Trend of ‘safe and secure community promotion’ As the safety dogma collapses and ‘people's perception that the security is deteriorating’ has risen, the National Police Agency has promoted and developed ‘the safe and secure community promotion’ campaign further. It consists of the measures on a hard side as seen in securing the physical property and the environment such as the designing and the installation of the surveillance camera and those on the policy that appear as practices of a variety of regional safety activities. Both show that the police are grandly intervening within the community under the pretext of security in the region. They are encouraged in the shape of the anti-crime activity or networking that the police, the municipality, and the local populace create by the support of ‘Regulations for a Safe and Secure Community.’ The number of administrative divisions where the ordinance has been enacted amounts to 35 as of November, 2000. Moreover, 35.3% of the local governments throughout the country (about 1500 municipalities) have enacted ‘Regulations for Safe and Secure Community’ according to Policy recommendation to a safe and secure community promotion that Japan City Center made public in May 2004. At present, this ‘safe and secure community promotion’ plays an important role in giving a constant sense of security to people who have fallen into the perception that the security is deteriorating. ’At the same time, it makes people positively accept values or standards for safety that are convenient for the society and prompt the selfregulation of their safety needs. This will create a sense of security and act as a deterrent to crime. However, being exposed to this ‘invisible scrutiny’ may change society’s thoughts of securing ‘safety’ by excluding people who look different from the predominant members of the society as a whole. The present ‘safe and security community promotion’ is largely supported by the normative consciousness expressed as ‘good local populace’ and ‘good professional /career man)’. Therefore, there is a possibility that people like NEET (Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training), the homeless and some foreigners may be labeled as dangers to society and could threaten people's daily lives. The point that I would like to stress, especially in relation to this, is that the modern history of Japan has always discriminated against ‘interior Foreigners’ such as Korean and Chinese residents in Japan, and left them out of participating in the society. Now, various policies concerning multi-cultural co-living are being promoted, but they have not been developed based on the reflection referred to in the above-mentioned history. Many Japanese still have prejudices against some foreigners, and tend to tie the increasing crime rate to them. According to "the Public opinion poll concerning the pro-human right" that the Cabinet Office conducted in February, 2003,the ratio of


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people who answered, "Even the person who doesn't have Japanese nationality should defend human rights just like the Japanese" was 54.6% of the whole. The situation seems not to have changed so much, though several years have already passed since this poll’s findings were announced. However, a society where the safety dogma consists of a certain kind of exclusion and concealment and maintains the above-mentioned three boundaries has past. The ‘Safe and secure community promotion’ after the collapse of the safety myth will become more difficult, if society develops a ‘shuttered and defended community’ that depends on a rapid rise of monitoring and surveillance capabilities and the exclusion of those that are different. 4. Scenario of safety in a borderless society When the three boundaries of time, space and society collapsed, the safety dogma collapsed at the same time. The problem is how to create a scenario of ‘safety’ after the collapse of the safety dogma. There is no chance of returning to a world where three boundaries can be reinstated. Citizens cannot do anything but accept the difference in others and oppose various crimes. In other words, people must willingly live in a society that contains vast diversity and risk. A possible expected scenario would be that the Japanese people would ‘modernize’ the traditions of community in Japan, where a clear, hierarchical segregation would no longer exist in the region, and therefore, not much hostility would exist among the various local people. Then, this innovated Japanese community could be connected with the ‘safe and secure community promotion.’ So, it is necessary to design a community that doesn't bury ‘gated communities’ and ‘suburbs that get rough’ as seen in Europe and America under the society. Moreover, Japan must establish social norms with a high level of maturity that indicate a readiness to form a ‘public’ that contains a reduction of divisions in society to promote the people’s safety, while valuing an individual aspect of one another. An alternative expected scenario might be that Japan would rebuild the crime prevention systems distorted by the visualism through the recovery of the five senses, especially aural. By the way, this visualist system can be recognized by the excessive use of the surveillance camera today. According to 'Police White Paper' 2006 versions, it is said that 272 street security cameras are set up in downtown areas of 11 prefecture capitals as of the end of March in 2006. However, this is the number operated directly by the police. This number rises greatly number when the cameras set up by the municipalities and the shopping streets are included. People originally understood danger from sound. They perceived that the silence at night was the starting point of safety, and in an opposite expression, the sounds in the dark of the night threatened the deep-rooted safety. And, as for the temporal border previously described, Japan could realize this through ‘disembedding’ and ‘reembedding’ the temporal border into society. However, a question that remains is ‘How does this “reembedding” turn into an “opened and defended community,” concretely?’ Reference Kawai, Mikio. (2004) Anzen Shinwa Hokai no Paradokkusu （Paradox in the Collapse of Safety Myth），Iwanami Shoten. Held, David (ed.). (2000) A Globalizing World?, Open University Press. Nakagawa,Gou. (1980) Chonaikai(The Neighborhood Association), Chuokouronsha. Urry, John. (2000) Sociology beyond Societies, Routledge. Yoshihara, Naoki. (2007) Hiraitemamoru Anzen, Anshin no Komyuniti Zukuri notameni （ Open and Defend: for safe and secure community promotion）, Iwanami Shoten. Yoshihara, Naoki. (forthcoming) Fluidity of Place, Trans Pacific Press.