JAPAN, CHINA FIGHTING CRIME

Japan and China have finally built the chassis of a vehicle that will allow
both countries to work together in a joint crusade against crime.

Though the framework for joint Sino-Japanese police work is still new, the
surge in crimes committed by Chinese criminals in Japan prompted the
National Policy Agency to send a delegation of 10 officials to China to
improve cooperation with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing, Fuzhou,
Guangzhou, and Shanghai.

At Japan's request, Chinese public security officials have also agreed to
consult with National Police Agency officials on a regular basis.

Snakeheads, or smugglers who traffic in large groups of illegal Chinese
immigrants, loosely organized Chinese underworld groups and the Shanghai
mafia present the major challenges to Japanese law-enforcement authorities.
Japan must depend on cooperation from China's public security apparatus in
order to stamp out the smuggling of guns, drugs, and illegal aliens.

Chinese criminal syndicates are believed to have established relationships
with the Japanese underworld. However, snakeheads and other crime groups do
not have the pyramid-like organizational structures of Japanese crime
syndicates, so it is difficult to gauge their influence and to determine
the types of arrangements that they have worked out with their Japanese
partners.

During the first three months of this year, Japanese police confiscated a
record 652 kilograms of narcotics. Most of these substances came from China
and were uncovered at the waterfront with the help of Chinese authorities.
But the confiscated drugs amount to only a fraction of the estimated 6 tons
of narcotics consumed annually by drug users in Japan.