Both official police statistics and the 1989 victimization survey document the low crime rate in Japan compared to other countries, notably those with urbanization and industrialization patterns similar to Japan's. A comparison of official and victimization statistics within Japan over time, however, shows that Japan's crime rate has increased since the late 1970's. Legal provision which help keep Japan's crime rate low compared to other countries include gun control, drug laws, decentralized community police operations, and an effective system of community-based crime prevention. Larger aspects of Japanese society that contribute to low crime rates are economic and political stability, traditional informal social control, the design of the physical environment, and cultural homogeneity. Factors that may be fostering the increasing crime rate are the expanding effects of industrialization and urbanization which affect the design of the physical environment, the social interactions of a high percentage of the population, and the ease of achieving anonymity. Internationalization of Japanese culture also threatens to change the traditional social values that have fostered submission to authority and group values. Appended figures and tabular data on crime statistics in various countries and 5 references