Why Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

[Still Waters]

Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave - the proportion of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has been steadily increasing for 20 years. The BBC's Ed Butler asks why.

At a halfway house in Hiroshima - for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community - 69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.

"I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me - perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail," he says.

"So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: 'Look, I took this.'"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-47033704

[Unusual Tournament]

this is funny in a way. a rich country like Japan can afford to imprison a criminal with three squares and dignity but can't look after a model citizen. hell id do the same Tosh. 

[Hankenhunter]

They may be old, but they're not stupid.

[godnodog]

Here in Portugal we have jokes about low pensions for the elders and prisons.

[aztek]

you must have good prisons there, cuz here, no one in their right mind will go to prison willingly, unless they spend most of their life there, and are "on top of the food chain". otherwise people would rather live on the street.

Edited February 3, 2019 by aztek