When choosing a new place to visit not seldom do people take safety into consideration. No one would like to become a victim of a crime, especially not during the holiday mood. Of course Japan is known for being a safe travel destination but what about the more remote islands? Here, we will briefly overview the situation in Hachijojima and we will be talking in numbers.
Traffic violations
Island of this size is definitely not prone to traffic jams or anything like that, however, rare may they be but traffic violations do occur. The most common way of transportation after all is by car and even the oldest people drive here.
According to 2018 data there were 8439 registered cars (population 7490) which is more than one car per person or almost two cars per household (4317 households). To be precise, that is 1.13 car per person or 1.95 cars per household. Of course one must take into consideration that quite a few of those belong to businesses like car rental or other larger enterprises.
The statistic for traffic violations:
According to data of the past 14 years we have violations' median of 102 which comes out to be one violation every 3-4 days. This might pose various ideas about the safety, but one should also remember that more than 100 000 tourists visit the island every year, and, unfortunately for us, the data provided is not diversified by month, nor is there any information on whether the perpetrator was a local or not, etc. The only addition we have is Drunk driving. At least driving under the influence is not a thing so that is reassuring, yet there is always that someone who thinks it is alright to do so. Never drink and drive, please.
Crime
It might be due to the fact that Hachijojima is a remote island and escaping is difficult that the criminal activity is close to non-existant here. One of the more eye-catching things that have occurred here was the capture of a criminal (male, 23) who tried to flee the mainland by ferry in 2013 (11/27) after having stabbed a woman (22) to death in Chiba. The police got the best of the perpetrator by using a helicopter to go to Hachijojima and wait for his arrival at the port. In the morning of the next day he was securely captured and brought back.
While the incident had no relation to the island apart criminal's capture, the whole incident attracted large media attention and is sometimes remembered by the locals.
Stories aside, let us dive into numbers of the offences on the island:
Note: just like with the traffic violations, the above mentioned categories are not defined in detail therefore what exactly is considered to be other, or what precise offence was registered is unknown.
With the exception of a superb year of 2017, the results seem to have hit a plateau and have been constant for the past ten years bringing us the median of 28 crimes per year. That is a bit more than two offences per month or roughtly one crime every two weeks; the most dominant one being theft. Again, taking into account the tourist flow, scale of the events, and other things, the overall situation looks good.
As far as juvenile are concerned, the situation is admirable. No offences have been reported since 2011, so kudos to the young ones.
The Verdict
Hachijojima boasts many things and safety is one of them. It is definitely not a totally crime-free location, however, the data backs up their claims of a safe environment for everyone and the chances of you running into such incident are slim. Looking at the 2017 data gives us hope that the situation will only improve and that one day it will achieve it's crimeless island title.
Safe travels!
Hachijojima101