Japan Police Report Highlights Crimes Surrounding Social Media

   Tokyo, July 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Police Agency on Tuesday published an annual white paper highlighting trends of crimes involving social media and investigation methods for such offenses.
   In a special section of the fiscal 2025 report, the NPA noted that the spread of social media has made it easy for "tokuryu" loosely organized crime groups comprising anonymous members to contact ordinary citizens and commit crimes.
   In 2024, the number of social media-linked investment and romance fraud cases detected by police around the country exceeded 10,000, with victims defrauded of some 127.2 billion yen in total, according to the report.
   Social media is also used for the recruiting of perpetrators of tokuryu groups, as well as drug trafficking and child prostitution.
   The report outlined investigative methods such as "digital forensics" for extracting data from confiscated items such as smartphones and recovering information contained in broken electronic devices for use as evidence. Also featured are cryptocurrency tracking technique and the use of artificial intelligence for cyber patrolling.

(2025/07/29-14:47)