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Cybercrime has become a major topic in the international community. Japan has also taken on the task of combatting this new crime-form by, for example, signing the European Council's Treaty of Budapest and improving international cooperation between the police and other institutions. However, it seems strange that the country is putting so much effort in combatting crime when thinking about the period between the 50's and the late 80's, when it was known as a 'low-crime nation'. That is why this research has focused on how the internet and the rise of cybercrime influenced this image. The method used was a literature-study and the problem has been evaluated in two ways: a sociological and a legal one. The sociological one will be based on the view that Japan was a low-crime nation because of its societal structure and its cultural values and norms. The legal one will show how Japan tries to cope with the rise of cybercrime by reforming its laws and legal culture and by restructuring its police force. The result of this study will show that Japan as a low-crime nation indeed has been influenced by the computer and the internet and that the country's culture and society was thoroughly shaken by those new technologies. This is why the cybercrime-rate in Japan is rising, while the overall crime-rate is increasing. On the other hand, Japan's countermeasures seem to be very efficient, since some types of cybercrime (such as the making of computer viruses or getting illicit access to a computer or network) have decreased in the last few years. This is probably due to the severe punishments that are attached to committing those crimes. This might also suggest that the 'low-crime nation' is restoring itself.

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This paper examines the motives behind the book 'Shakaishugi gaihyō' by Shimada Saburō. 'Shakaishugi gaihyō' belongs to the early period of social thought in Japan. Ideas centered around the modern concept of a 'society' became prominent in Japan in the 1890's. In the first half of the 1890's members of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement started expressing concern over 'social problems' and advocating socialist measures as a solution to these problems. This trend weakened during the Sino-Japanese War because of the suspicion towards socialism by mainstream liberals. After the war a socialist movement gradually formed around the christian magazine 'Rikugō zasshi'. The socialists attempted to found a political party in 1901, but the government illegalized the party the very next day. At the same time as the rise of the discourse on social problems by members of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, a group of academics started to advocate 'social policy' as a solution to social problems. In 1896 these academics formed the Shakai seisaku gakkai. The gakkai had a great influence on the early Japanese labor movement, but had an ambivalent attitude towards the socialist ideas that also played an important in this movement. When the socialist wing of the movement became more militant, the gakkai officially distanced itself from socialism. The prohibition of the socialist party and the anti-socialist declaration of the Shakai seisaku gakkai were cited by Shimada in 'Shakaishugi gaihyō' as the direct motives for writing the book. This paper describes the above-mentioned developments that lead to the creation of 'Shakaishugi gaihyō' and summarizes relevant chapters of the book in order to come to an understanding of the conditions surrounding social thought in its early stage in Japan and the thought of Shimada Saburō.