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| Child counseling center staff and police officers hold a joint training session in Chiba Prefecture in November 2023. (Source: Kyodo) |
Kyodo news agency quoted sources as saying that the National Police Agency has warned child welfare centers after discovering that the number of suspected child abuse cases rose to a record high in 2023 at 122,806, up 6.1% from the previous year.
Last year, police opened 2,385 criminal investigations into suspected child abuse, up 9.4% from 2022 and the highest number ever. The number of children under 18 who were taken to child welfare centers for mental abuse also rose to a record 90,761, including 52,611 who witnessed domestic violence against family members.
The number of children who suffered physical abuse also reached 21,520, while 10,205 children were neglected or abandoned, and 320 children were sexually abused. Among the cases that required criminal investigation, there were 1,903 children who suffered physical abuse, 372 children who suffered sexual abuse, 65 children who suffered mental abuse, and 45 children who were neglected or abandoned.
In addition, the number of stalking advice requests rose for the first time in six years, to 19,843. This exceeded the number of initial warnings issued by police since the revised stalking control law came into effect in 2017.
At the same time, the number of restraining orders issued also reached a record high of 1,963. Domestic violence consultations increased by 4.9% compared to the previous year to 88,619 cases, of which 70.5% of the victims were women and 29.5% were men.
The number of male victims of domestic violence has increased year-on-year from 21.7% in 2019, leading officials to say there are fewer barriers for men to complain.
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