[Aelinsaar]

The social consequences of committing a crime are enormous in Japan, and very long-term (like, the rest of your live). It makes answering the "Have you ever been convicted of a felony" section in the US look like a happy joke. That's part of it. The other is that most Japanese people would be really horrified at the idea of stealing someone's stuff, left that way. Finally, no bystander effect there, not for a crime like that.

[rangibaby]

I think it's more pragmatic. What are you going to do with a stolen phone in a country where everyone already has the exact phone that they want? Bag snatching (ひったくり) used to be a regular enough occurrence that most people would know a friend it had happened to, but the occurrence of that has dropped too (90% since the year 2000 in Osaka [0]).

I would attribute the drop to the fact that most things people carry around now simply aren't worth stealing. Why risk jail over things that you can only flip for a few hundred bucks at most? There is almost no poor underclass here who would do that to survive, a side effect of Japan not being a desirable place for poor people to immigrate to.

[0] https://www.police.pref.osaka.jp/05bouhan/gaitohanzai/pdf/hi...

Heisei 12 = 2000 Heisei 26 = 2014

[Aelinsaar]

That's a good point, but it definitely relates to what I'm saying as well; you're just describing the benefit side of the cost:benefit analysis any criminal has to do. A lot of the cost in Japan, even for the pettiest of crimes, is that you either have to absolutely get away with it, or be branded a criminal.

All of what you said applies too, and it's all connected to the tighter community-oriented culture. There is after all, nothing impractical about choosing not to commit a petty crime, when as you say the benefit is minor and the risks are enormous.

[ekianjo]

I think you dont really understand the culture in Japan. There is no calculation going on. Stealing would not even cross 99.99% peoples mind in the first place.

[Aelinsaar]

I understand that, and am pointing out some of the conditioning behind that.