[bsder]

> Why is it so incredible that a foreign country can behave differently and have low crime?

It's not. However, the Japanese are notorious for underreporting negative things like suicide and crime statistics.

> Property isn't worth taking anymore.

Given that the US had an almost identical order of magnitude drop in burglary (which started dropping before Japan's did) and didn't particularly do anything new, that's probably a much better explanation.

People not transacting cash is probably the biggest cause. People just don't have cash in their wallets or purses anymore.

After that is gone, what can you steal out of my house that's actually valuable?

[actionfromafar]

Isn't cash still big in Japan though?

[bsder]

I'll let someone else jump in here, but do remember that Japan was one of the first places where you could use your phone to pay for just about everything.