Japan’s shoplifters hate a simple ‘hello’ more than cameras

After 16 years of studying shoplifting in Japan and testing ways to curb the problem, academic Tomoo Okubo believes he has found the simplest and most effective deterrent: a friendly greeting from a member of staff. Shoplifting has grown steadily worse in Japan in recent years – a trend accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Okubo, a professor of criminal psychology at Kagawa University. He says official case numbers reflect only a fraction of the real total. “The prefecture where...