Photo/Illutration Yellow tape is used as a stop-gap measure for the missing part of an aluminum fence surrounding a sewage treatment facility in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, on May 16. (Ryuichiro Fukuoka)

Ibaraki Prefecture has become a hotspot for metal thefts, a scourge that spread nationwide with the rising prices for aluminum, copper and other building materials, according to the National Police Agency (NPA).

Security measures have been set up, such as enclosing facilities with fences. But what can be done if the fences themselves are being stolen?

In March, an official turned up for work at a sewage treatment facility in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, and found that 480 fence posts surrounding the premises were missing.

The aluminum posts were 1.4 meters tall. An aluminum gate used to restrict traffic was also removed.

According to Joso city officials, it was the sixth time metal objects have been stolen from the sewage facility since April last year.

The municipality spent about 600,000 yen ($4,300) to repair the fence in November last year. It also installed security cameras in January.

“There is always a possibility that we will suffer thefts,” said an official from the city’s sewage division. “We haven’t decided how we should fix it.”

In Nagoya, about 3.1 kilometers of copper wire was stolen from a photovoltaic generation facility in January.

And in Saga Prefecture, at least 80 metal grates installed on street ditches had been lifted by February.

RISING PRICES

The average price of scrap iron in the Kanto, Chubu and Kansai regions was between 45,800 yen and 47,700 yen per ton in May, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Recycling Institute, a general incorporated association.

Although the price has dropped compared with the spike immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, it is almost double from three years ago.

“The price remains high because of the high costs for resources and the decline in Russian exports,” an association official said. “The price of scrap iron had been hovering between 10,000 yen and 40,000 yen for the past 30 years, but it is now in a different dimension.”

At the London Metal Exchange, which provides key indexes for metal prices, aluminum futures hit their highest level in 13 and a half years in February 2022, when Russia, a major producer of aluminum, started its invasion of Ukraine.

According to the NPA, 10,368 metal thefts were reported nationwide in 2022, nearly double the 5,478 thefts in 2020.

Of the 10,368 cases, 1,632, or 15.7 percent, were reported in Ibaraki Prefecture, almost twice the total of second-place Saitama Prefecture.

HOME OF SOLAR FACILITIES

According to Ibaraki prefectural police, stolen copper wire and other metal equipment from photovoltaic generation facilities accounted for 40 percent of metal thefts in the prefecture.

The prefecture hosts many solar power generation facilities on its flat plains.

A suspect arrested on suspicion of metal theft told police that such facilities are targeted because they are easy to find on map apps but are located in rather deserted areas where crimes in progress do not attract attention.

Prefectural police intend to seek cooperation from scrap metal buyers to prevent such crimes. The buyers could be asked to check the identities of metal sellers and provide information on dubious clients, such as those who bring in a large amount of scrap metal on a personal basis.

(This article was written by Junko Miyasako, Ryuichiro Fukuoka and Hidemasa Yoshizawa.

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