Shoplifting on rise in Japanese supermarkets having self-checkout machines

The advent of technology has become a nuisance for supermarkets in Japan. Soaring cases of shoplifting are being recorded in the country as self-checkout systems installed to plug staff shortages allow customers to walk away with goods without paying any money.

According to a report in South China Morning Post, rising prices, stagnant wages, shortfall in household savings and changing attitudes among younger generations are responsible for the undesirable rise in shoplifting. For a country like Japan, which prides itself on being a low-crime society, the increase in shoplifting incidents reflects poorly.

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Interestingly enough, about 80 per cent of shoplifting occurs when customers fail to scan their purchases at the self-service checkouts — meaning it is technology that is failing humans first. As a result, some stores are experiencing a 30 per cent increase in losses.

“The economy has been weak for 30 years now and it has become substantially worse since the coronavirus outbreak. Now, we have prices for everyday items rising, salaries static and no signs that situation is going to change any time soon,” Makoto Watanabe, a professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Sapporo was quoted as saying by the publication.

“People simply have less to spend, and for those who are struggling, this is an easy opportunity," he added, pointing out that fundamental changes in Japanese society were forcing people to steal.

“It’s like the young people we saw a few months ago taking videos of themselves licking soy sauce bottles in sushi restaurants for ‘likes’ on social media. They enjoy causing anger and outrage and we, as a society, have to be tougher on this sort of behaviour,” he added.

Why so many checkout stores?

For a long time, Japan has been facing labour shortage issues, primarily due to its ageing population. Automated checkout solutions have been the answer to this problem. Notably, the first self-checkout counters were introduced in Japan, way back in 2003 and since then, have witnessed a steady increase in numbers.

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In 2019, an estimated 14.3 per cent of all supermarkets were operating the system which increased to around 30 per cent in 2022, primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic as supermarkets attempted to limit interactions between staff and customers to stop the virus spread.

(With inputs from agencies)

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