PRISONS in Japan are filling up with an unexpected group: the elderly. For the first time, more crimes are being committed by people over 65 than by those aged between 14 and 19 (see chart). The young still have a slightly higher propensity to commit crime. But in absolute terms, because of Japan’s ageing population, the elderly are now responsible for more incidents of shoplifting, brawling and the like. One motivation is straitened circumstances. Some lonely elderly may even look to prisons for companionship and care, including in special geriatric wards.

Meanwhile, the number of crimes committed by the young has been falling since 2003—despite the police doing their utmost to arrest youngsters for tiny misdemeanours such as—horrors—going into rice paddies without permission. And bear in mind that Japan’s crime rate, including among the young, is about a tenth of the average for developed countries.

Even so, a few grisly murders by minors have convinced many Japanese, whipped up by the media, that the country is suffering an unprecedented epidemic of youth violence and delinquency. One recent case was that of three boys, aged 17-18, who were indicted in February in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. Two more instances of violence by schoolchildren in April and June, resulting in the deaths of young victims, have spread more unease.

Hovering over the recent cases is the revived story of a serial killer from Kobe who, as a 14-year-old in 1997, killed two younger children, decapitating one of them. In June the killer published a detailed memoir. It has become a bestseller, outraging and mesmerising Japanese readers in equal measure.

At present Japan’s approach to juvenile wrongdoers places the emphasis on reform of the individual, not punishment. In theory, under the Juvenile Act of 1948, judges may hand down criminal sentences to those younger than 20. In practice, rehabilitation is the watchword, taking place in more lenient correctional institutions rather than in prisons.

Most juvenile offenders in Japan are sent to one of 52 training schools. There they develop close relationships with teachers who prepare them quickly to rejoin society. Academic studies and vocational training continue inside. Until not long ago, even youngsters guilty of murder might be detained for no more than two years in the schools before being released, apparently rehabilitated.

A vocal victims’ rights movement has begun to chip away at the act’s provisions. In 2001 the threshold age at which convicted miscreants may get a penal sentence was lowered from 16 to 14. Such sentences for juveniles are now more common. Japan has even executed a murderer who was a minor at the time of his offence.

Conservative politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) now want to make the regime for young offenders tougher still. Given the recent rash of murders, the timing is right for that, says Kunio Hatoyama, a former justice minister notable for the increased number of adult executions he authorised while in office. The sentencing on July 13th of an autistic girl who, at 15, strangled a classmate in Kyushu last year has added to populist calls for a more punitive regime; she will go to a juvenile training school with medical facilities, not prison.

The LDP’s chief aim is to lower the age at which the Juvenile Act applies, from 20 to 18—in line with a recent lowering of the voting age. But that, says Minoru Yokoyama, an expert on Japan’s penal system, could mean that two-fifths of young inmates now being rehabilitated in juvenile training schools would be lost to the prison system. A greater stigma would then attach to young offenders. Meanwhile the much-praised quality of the training schools would suffer, as many of the volunteers who now work with children would leave. Currently, a lower proportion of minors than adults reoffends in Japan.

For all the brouhaha about juvenile crime, one factor underlying it is neglected: a pervasive culture of school bullying in a group-oriented education system. The number of bullying cases continues to rise, and is in any case understated by teachers. (Bullying also contributes to a high rate of suicide among the young.) Ryota Uemura, the 13-year-old who was stabbed, had stopped going to school and was known by the police to have suffered assaults at the hands of his eventual killer. There was a clear failure to protect him.