Japan strips shelves of books on 'foreigner crime'

JAPANESE retailers are pulling copies of a book on "foreigner crime" from their shelves after a wave of complaints.

The front cover of Shocking Foreigner Crime: The Undercover File, published in Japanese, features caricatures of non-Japanese, alongside the question: "Is it all right to let foreigners devastate Japan?"

"We are removing the book from our shelves today," said Takehiko Kigure of FamilyMart's public relations department.

"We had complaints from customers, and when we checked the content of the magazine, we found that it contained some inappropriate language," he added.

Inside the glossy magazine-style book, photographs and illustrations show what the editors say are non-Japanese engaged in criminal or reprehensible behaviour.

Details of well-known past crimes committed by foreigners are given. "We wanted to take this up as a contemporary problem," said Shigeki Saka of Tokyo-based publishers Eichi, which also publishes magazines on popular US and South Korean television dramas. "I think it would be good if this becomes a chance to broaden the debate."

Some in Japan, where crime rates are extremely low compared with Europe and the US, are concerned about a possible increase in crime associated with an influx of foreigners.