Mats Utas
Funded by the Swedish Japan Foundation
Statistics show how remarkably safe Japan is. In 2023, for example,12,372 serious crimes were reported in a population of 124 million. In 2020, Japan had 35 burglaries per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to Sweden’s 783. This research project aims to contribute to understanding safety and security in urban Japan through an ethnographic field study in Nagasaki. With the overarching question: To what extent and how do local structures of belonging and cooperation contribute to a community’s ability to create security and directly or indirectly counter criminal activities? This project focuses on how people relate to safety and security beyond the state and how security between people is formed, maintained, and changed over time.
This is my first attempt to conduct research in Japan. It may also be the first part of a larger qualitative study of safety and security issues worldwide. To get a wide selection of countries, I have the idea to include Japan, Sweden, Ukraine, and Caribbean country Grenada, in addition to the West African countries I have worked in for a long time.