In the midst of all the talk of how crime is on the rise in Japan comes a report from The Yomiuri Shimbun revealing that crime actually is down from the record high hit back in 2002.

The Japan Urban Security Research Institute calculated municipal crime figures by looking at the number of crimes per 1,000 people in 2006. It then drew up a colored map featuring seven different crime levels, with red indicating a high crime rate and green indicating a low crime rate.

Compared with a map based on figures for 2002, the map for 2006 has significantly fewer areas colored red, indicating fewer municipalities with a high crime rate.

The drop in crime apparently is a result of a series of security measures taken since 2002.

No word in the report as to whether gaijin crime has changed over the same period.