Elderly Priosners

Japan is home to one of the world's most quickly aging societies. Because of this reality, most of Japan's criminals are now age sixty-five or older. Most of the perpetrators are imprisoned for nonviolent crimes. The majority of them were found guilt for shoplifting or petty theft.

In the U.S. most of the elderly prisoners are incarcerated for more vicious crimes that led to long sentences without parole.

Japan is seeing a rise in the number of elderly criminals due in part to the breakdown of the traditional society. Because they have no one to care for them, people often turn to crime to beat poverty. This rise in the elderly prison population is increasingly causing problems for the Japanese government due to the high costs of health care for the aging prison population.