Japanese Bicycle Theft Statistics

Japan has a reputation for having a low crime rate, so much so that it is not uncommon for people to leave their bicycles unlocked when parked on the street or in parking garages. But despite the belief of many that leaving a bicycle is unsafe Japan does have bicycle thieves and hundreds of thousands of bicycles are reported stolen each year.

In 2013, according to police statistics, 305,033 bicycles were reported stolen. Osaka had the highest rate of bicycle theft with 4.65 bicycles stolen per 1000 residents, followed by Tokyo and Saitama. Cities with the lowest incidents of bicycle theft were Akita and Nagasaki with just 0.57 reported thefts per 1000 residents.

As registering your bicycle as a theft deterrent is compulsory for all bicycles purchased in Japan it would be great to see statistics from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police as to how many of these stolen bicycles were recovered and returned to their owners.

Table: Number of Stolen Bicycles and Rate per 1000 Residents by City, 2013

	Reported stolen bicycles in 2013	Population (unit:1000)	Rate per 1000 residents
Osaka	41,191	8,856	4.65
Tokyo	50,859	13,230	3.84
Saitama	23,506	7,212	3.26
Hyogo	16,329	5,571	2.93
Kyoto	7,632	2,625	2.91
Chiba	17,791	6,195	2.87
Fukuoka	14,516	5,085	2.85
Okayama	5,026	1,936	2.60
Shiga	3,562	1,415	2.52
Aichi	17,832	7,427	2.40
Kochi	1,667	752	2.22
Kanagawa	19,900	9,067	2.19
Mie	3,810	1,840	2.07
Saga	1,702	843	2.02
Miyazaki	2,123	1,126	1.89
Ehime	2,654	1,415	1.88
Gifu	3,798	2,061	1.84
Hiroshima	5,074	2,848	1.78
Tokushima	1,363	776	1.76
Nara	2,364	1,390	1.70
Wakayama	1,664	988	1.68
Kagawa	1,658	989	1.68
Shizuoka	6,058	3,735	1.62
Ibaraki	4,751	2,943	1.61
Miyagi	3,722	2,325	1.60
Tochigi	3,130	1,992	1.57
Yamaguchi	2,215	1,431	1.55
Tottori	898	582	1.54
Kumamoto	2,711	1,807	1.50
Ishikawa	1,724	1,163	1.48
Hokkaido	7,965	5,460	1.46
Gunma	2,890	1,992	1.45
Yamanashi	1,223	852	1.44
Niigata	3,298	2,347	1.41
Nagano	2,854	2,132	1.34
Kagoshima	2,114	1,690	1.25
Fukui	996	799	1.25
Toyama	1,344	1,082	1.24
Oita	1,420	1,185	1.20
Fukushima	2,263	1,962	1.15
Okinawa	1,603	1,409	1.14
Shimane	778	707	1.10
Iwate	1,233	1,303	0.95
Aomori	1,267	1,350	0.94
Yamagata	971	1,152	0.84
Akita	758	1,063	0.71
Nagasaki	796	1,408	0.57

Table: Number of Stolen Bicycles by Prefecture in 2013, 2012

	2013	2012
Total	305,003	303,745
Hokkaido	7,965	8,810
Aomori	1,267	1,434
Iwate	1,233	1,442
Miyagi	3,722	3,837
Akita	758	844
Yamagata	971	909
Fukushima	2,263	2,410
Tokyo	50,859	53,184
Ibaraki	4,751	4,819
Tochigi	3,130	3,046
Gunma	2,890	2,806
Saitama	23,506	24,706
Chiba	17,791	18,890
Kanagawa	19,900	20,643
Niigata	3,298	3,256
Yamanashi	1,223	1,337
Nagano	2,854	3,109
Shizuoka	6,058	6,383
Toyama	1,344	1,419
Ishikawa	1,724	1,811
Fukui	996	965
Gifu	3,798	3,951
Aichi	17,832	18,823
Mie	3,810	4,363
Shiga	3,562	3,593
Kyoto	7,632	7,359
Osaka	41,191	30,191
Hyogo	16,329	15,930
Nara	2,364	2,514
Wakayama	1,664	1,760
Tottori	898	862
Shimane	778	835
Okayama	5,026	5,477
Hiroshima	5,074	5,307
Yamaguchi	2,215	2,234
Tokushima	1,363	1,496
Kagawa	1,658	1,652
Ehime	2,654	2,545
Kochi	1,667	1,736
Fukuoka	14,516	14,216
Saga	1,702	1,697
Nagasaki	796	881
Kumamoto	2,711	2,693
Oita	1,420	1,516
Miyazaki	2,123	2,220
Kagoshima	2,114	2,267
Okinawa	1,603	1,567

Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.