All the Lonely People...

Japanese society never fails to amaze me. In an example of the land of the rising sun's strangeness, is a report that a large proportion of the nation's emerging petty criminals are originating from retired persons. According to Reuters, the elderly, in an attempt to invigorate their existence have begun to furtively swarm shopping centers across the nation and shoplift their miseries away.

Unfortunately, the article doesn't say what the most common items stolen are, but if I was to guess, I would predict that bobble-headed figurines of former Emperor Hirohito, stuffed animals that transform into giant pill dispensing robots, and quite possibly, trendy hari kari knives with extra cute Hello Kitty logos would be some of the more desirable items.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo police will try to rein in a wave of shoplifting by lonely elderly people by involving them in community service, a police spokesman said Thursday.

One out of four elderly shoplifters in the capital blamed their crime on loneliness, Japanese media quoted a police survey as saying. Another 8 percent said it was because they had "no reason to live."

More than half the elderly shoplifters said they had no friends and 40 percent of them lived alone, media said.

"Making shoplifters do volunteer work in the community is effective," the Tokyo Shimbun quoted J.F. Oberlin University professor Akihiro Sakai, head of a police research panel set up to tackle shoplifting, as saying.

"Instead of increased punishment, I hope we can rehabilitate shoplifters with special care." A police spokesman declined to confirm the details of the survey but said it would be released to the public soon.

Elderly shoplifting cases in Tokyo reached all-time highs last year, nearly catching up with the number of cases involving young offenders.

People 65 years or older accounted for 23 percent of the 17,800 known shoplifting cases in 2008, more than doubling in the past five years, media said.

An example cited in the Ministry of Justice's annual report on crime describes a 76-year-old woman who turned to shoplifting several years ago as a way to battle loneliness after her parents died.

Over 20 percent of Japan's population is aged 65 or over, with that figure set to double by 2050.