A series of high-profile break-ins in which culprits phoned ahead of time to get private information on assets and family situation has left people skittish about talking on the phone or even answering it in the first place.
The heightened awareness of crime has made campaign offices scramble for other ways than the time-tested method of phoning, because they were trying to solicit votes for the upcoming unified local elections.
How do I get my phone number? An elderly man turned down a female campaign staff member in her 40 s of an incumbent running for a Hokkaido prefectural assembly. She had called from a list of the candidate's supporters.
The exchange came in mid-February after four suspects were deported from the Philippines to Japan for allegedly masterminding a string of robberies around the nation that involved the use of dark part-time jobs solicited on social media.
Under the Public Offices Election Law, phoning people to appeal for votes is allowed during the campaign period, while calls related to activities of supporters groups are allowed even before the period ends.
The camp of the incumbent male candidate running for a seat in Sapporo has had problems with phone solicitations more than a few times. Calls can go directly to voicemail or are disconnected via security functions.
The candidate said that this was because of the recent series of robberies. He and his staff had called voters to solicit their support during previous campaigns, but he has abandoned doing so this time.
The campaign office of a candidate in Sapporo for the prefectural assembly election said that calls have provoked responses such as I don't recall joining the supporters group, or Why are you calling me so? During the previous unified local elections, they did far more than they did four years ago.
The Hokkaido prefectural police said there had been a rash of suspicious phone calls that were meant to determine whether a resident was home. These calls were confirmed by March 31, 477, mainly in Sapporo, in which the caller said, I m on my way home or I ll visit you now. The police said these calls could have been made by a criminal group doing the prep work for a break-in or robbery or could be part of a fraud scheme.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said there were 51.11 million fixed telephone land lines as of the end of December 2022, a decline of about 10% over the past 10 years due to the shift to mobile phones.
The incumbent candidate who stopped making calls said that phone calls to voters are an important means of solidifying our base, but it may be no longer suited to the times.