By SHIMPACHI YOSHIDA/ Staff Writer
February 5, 2023 at 17:52 JST
The central government building housing the National Police Agency in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A record 115,730 children were referred to child welfare centers by police in 2022 over suspected abuse by parents, guardians and others, according to preliminary figures released by the National Police Agency. The figure is up 7.1 percent over the previous year, .
The number of children under the age of 18 who are believed to have fallen victim to abuse has risen consistently since 2004, when the agency began collecting such data. The total topped 10,000 in 2011 and 100,000 in 2020.
The agency said the steady increase reflects growing public awareness of the issue and readiness to report suspected cases of abuse to police.
Although the preliminary figures for 2022 represent a new high, experts fear many cases went unnoticed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic when people spent far more time indoors.
The agency’s report, released Feb. 2, showed that 84,951 children were victims of psychological abuse involving threatening language and complete indifference. The figure represented a year-on-year increase of 5.8 percent.
Psychological abuse accounted for more than 70 percent of the overall cases, many of which were perpetrated by parents or other people, the agency said.
Children who became targets of physical abuse totaled 20,656, up 7.7 percent from 2021. The NPA said 9,801 children were involved in cases of child neglect, up 18.5 percent over the previous year.
Cases of sexual abuse also rose, victimizing 322, up 8.8 percent.
The report also showed that police exposed 2,171 cases where parents were suspected of abusing their children, only three short of last year’s figure, a record.
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