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The story
On the 19th, it was reported that an expert panel convened by Japan’s National Police Agency plans to debate requiring stalking offenders to wear GPS devices and undergo mandatory treatment and counseling. The move comes against a backdrop in which existing measures — warnings and no-approach orders — have repeatedly failed to stop offenders from closing in on victims again, with some cases escalating into serious crimes. On 5ch, posters raised a string of practical doubts: Can GPS actually prevent harm? Who would monitor it around the clock, and how? Does treatment even work? Many also argued the policy should be extended to cover other crimes, such as sex offenses.
Mandatory GPS Tracking and Treatment for Stalking Offenders Up for Debate — National Police Agency Expert Panel: The Asahi Shimbun
October 15, 2026, 10:06 AM — Subscriber-only article
Senior Staff Writer: Shinpachi Yoshida
Source: asahi.com / Original article here
What people said
Exactly this
Sex offender recidivism rates are insanely high
They'll reoffend eventually anyway — just give 'em the death penalty or forced labor for life
Don't stop at sex offenders, slap it on other criminals too
Seems likely someone would miss the alert if their phone's on silent
No need to notify the victim at all.
Just have police automatically dispatched the second he gets close — like they do in America.
Thanks
So does that mean women's whereabouts would also end up being tracked by police?
I guess that's unavoidable since it's meant to stop stalkers
How does this actually work?
Does it go off when he gets near the home, or near the person?
If it's keyed to the home, you'd miss him approaching anywhere else; if it's keyed to the person, couldn't the offender get arrested just for coincidentally being nearby without even knowing the victim was there?
An approach alarm going off means nothing if you can't fight back
I bet a loud alarm blares the instant the signal cuts out
And then random bystanders film you on their phones and post it to social media lol
So you're saying it's better not to make anyone wear one at all?
Why not something like the DSS Choker from Evangelion (Neon Genesis Evangelion)?
Just strap it around the neck and call it done
If it prevents even some of the harm, isn't that still worth it?
Is everyone going to attack regardless?
What's a guy supposed to do if he wins in court but still gets branded a stalker?
How do you even enforce mandatory treatment or counseling?
Trying to lecture guys who are willing to kill about 'following the law'… good luck with that
Make it one village, let them move around freely within the island
'Stalker Island' lol
Since they're all stalker types to begin with, you'd just get stalkers stalking other stalkers lol
Let them stalk each other to their hearts' content, fellow stalkers and all
Might as well raise some ninjas there too, that'd be nice
It's precisely because it can't be cured that they GPS-tag them so ordinary people can steer clear
Meanwhile they move rabbit-fast when it's their own cushy post-retirement gig on the line
Probably amakudari (bureaucrats parachuting into cushy jobs) at GPS device makers or private monitoring firms
There are only a handful of stalker murders a year, yet they're always quick to move on stuff like this that barely matters
They'll just get desperate, snap, and become a random attacker — and then unrelated people get hurt instead
And if someone really wants to go after the original target, there's still shady 'yami baito' hired muscle or drones for that
A guy like that is going to reoffend whether he's wearing a GPS or not, so that's not a reason to skip it
Sounds like a system could just monitor it automatically and push an alert to the victim's phone the moment he gets close — that seems doable right away
Treatment is non-negotiable
But GPS is ultimately useless against someone who's actually going to kill
If a tracker were enough to make him hesitate to kill, he'd have already backed off back when he first got warned
Instead of making them wear a GPS
Just tattoo the character 'ス' ('su', the first syllable of 'stalker') on both cheeks
That way ordinary people can spot at a glance that this guy's dangerous — more effective, and it lets the public keep watch too
Jumping in here, but
with America's GPS ankle monitors, the area the wearer's allowed to move in is set in advance
If they leave that zone without prior application and approval, a loud buzzer goes off on the device,
and at the same moment an alert sounds at the police unit running the 24-hour monitoring, and they get a phone call from police
If they don't pick up that confirmation call, or don't return to the permitted zone right away even after police tell them to,
officers are dispatched to the scene immediately and take them into custody
Oh, so it's the offender's movement that's restricted
Then I guess they also tell the victim something like 'stay out of that area'?
Thanks, that's a clear explanation
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Since Japan’s Anti-Stalking Act took effect in 2000, enforcement has centered on administrative measures like warnings and no-approach orders, but there have been few tools to proactively stop an offender from closing in again, and cases have repeatedly escalated into serious crimes even after a warning was issued. This new panel appears aimed at combining GPS location tracking with mandatory treatment and counseling, reinforcing countermeasures on two fronts at once: physical deterrence and changing the offender’s actual behavior. Where opinions in the thread split was over what standard the location monitoring should use (restricting the offender’s movement versus detecting proximity to the victim), how effective treatment can realistically be, and whether the scope should be widened to cover other crimes such as sex offenses. Posters also raised institutional design questions — how wearing a GPS device would affect an offender’s social life and human rights, and who would staff round-the-clock monitoring — with even supportive voices admitting practical concerns.
*This article is compiled as excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Mandatory GPS Tracking and Treatment for Stalking Offenders Up for Debate — National Police Agency Expert Panel, the 19th.”
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