Japan has less than a quarter of the U.S. murder rate, a fifth of the rape rate, and less than 1 percent of the robbery rate. To achieve these low rates of conventional crime in a society once traumatized by World War II and the intrusion of Western ways, Japan has relied on traditional and consensual methods of social control. The Japanese criminal justice system focuses on efficiency, professionalism, and a degree of publicly supported invasion of citizens' personal affairs. The police system features personal knowledge of the neighborhood and its people. Each resident in every household must be registered at the police ministation. Crime prevention associations composed of local citizens aid the social control apparatus. Increasingly chaotic, if not yet anomic, post industrial countries can gain much from the Japanese experience in crime prevention and control, but such societies must be aware that crime prevention and control are but a reflection of a socially cohesive society. Japan has experienced a number of distinctive circumstances in achieving modernization. It has had racial and cultural homogeneity as well as isolation that has created an integrated and cohesive system unmatched in the West. Also, Japanese religious and cultural values have been able to accommodate the value inherent in modernization. 13 references.