From our other sites
The story
The city of Chikusei in Ibaraki Prefecture has launched a program to subsidize the cost of installing home security cameras, after burglaries targeting homes in the city doubled to 103 cases in 2025 from 50 the previous year. The city will cover half of eligible costs, up to a maximum of 20,000 yen.
On the 5ch thread, posters voiced frustration that even when suspects are caught on camera, they’re often never prosecuted — and questioned whether a camera that merely records footage has any deterrent effect at all. Others offered concrete self-defense tips, like motion-sensor lights and installing multiple cameras, showing a split in how residents view the crime-prevention measure.
The city of Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, announced on the 1st that it has launched a program to partially subsidize the cost of installing home security cameras with recording functions, in response to a rise in burglaries targeting homes in the city.
According to the city, home burglaries in 2025 numbered 103 cases, roughly double the 50 cases recorded the previous year. The city says it wants to support households’ own voluntary crime-prevention efforts to help prevent further damage.
Residents of the city will be reimbursed for half of eligible costs — including camera purchase and installation work — up to a maximum of 20,000 yen.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That already exists.
Lawyer: "Actually, there's a special provision that means you can't be charged for stabbing a burglar or robber to death…"
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2023/03/22/kiji/20230322s00041000285000c.html
Yep, not prosecuted.
That would make follow-up investigations way smoother.
This whole "relay investigation" thing — where they go around asking each individual household with a camera for cooperation to trace the guy's route — is way too inefficient. Meanwhile he's already skipped the country.
They'll just cut the wire or spray-paint over the lens though.
Great crime deterrent.
Those "yami-baito" gig criminals would probably just kill the pit bulls too. (yami-baito = shady "dark part-time job" postings often used to recruit people for burglaries and robberies)
It needs to actually function as a deterrent, or there's no point.
Like blaring a siren at full volume,
or playing warning announcements in multiple languages.
Might as well treat it like a ballistic missile alert then.
multiple cameras with motion-detection alerts,
and a "crowbar-like object" stashed at key spots around the house —
that's just common sense in the Reiwa era.
Don't forget the bear spray either.
Wasn't that just a masked palm civet? (a raccoon-like animal common in Japan known for raiding fruit trees)
All sorts of excuses — cutting through, a ball rolled in — and you see it a lot with kids.
Heck, sometimes the parents come in too.
Without even ringing the doorbell.
Kids these days probably don't get scolded by their parents for it, so the bar for trespassing onto someone else's land has gotten lower.
Physically marking off your property boundary costs money too, you know — that's what "exterior construction" work is for.
Heck, with housing prices these days, plenty of homes don't even have storm shutters or window bars anymore.
Background and Key Points
Chikusei’s subsidy program covers half of purchase and installation costs, up to a cap of 20,000 yen, aiming to lower the upfront cost of installing security cameras. Behind the move lies the reality of low arrest rates for burglary and a tendency for cases, even when solved, to end without prosecution — a point of frequent skepticism in the thread, where “just recording footage is meaningless” was a common refrain.
At the same time, security cameras are expected to have some benefits beyond arrest rates alone, such as identifying suspects, deterring crime in the surrounding area, and even reducing insurance premiums. The thread also included claims about the proportion of crimes committed by foreign nationals, but since these involved unverified figures and one-sided framing, such unsubstantiated assertions were excluded from this article. Whether the camera subsidy program proves effective will only become clear by tracking future installation numbers and crime statistics.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Ibaraki] Chikusei City, Where Home Burglaries “Doubled,” Introduces Subsidy Program for “Home Security Camera Installation Costs”.”
Leave a Reply