Japan youth crime rises to 24,416 in 2025 after decades of decline

The reversal matters less for its size than for what it breaks: a decades-long decline that had been treated as a settled social trend. The attribution to social media is the notable part, since it points to a driver that sits largely outside the institutions — police and schools — now tasked with responding. Whether the trend reflects a genuine shift in juvenile behavior or a change in how incidents are reported and pursued is the open question, and the answer shapes how much weight the social media explanation can carry.