Crime · Japan
Tokushu sagi
In plain English
The National Police Agency's umbrella category for fraud conducted without meeting the victim: the victim is induced at a distance to transfer money or hand over cash or cards. It is the heading under which Japanese fraud statistics are actually compiled.
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Agency category. An agency analytical category. Not itself a statute — no offence is defined by it.
The instrument
National Police Agency statistical category
Defined in the NPA Police White Paper from the 2012 (平成24年版) edition
It did not replace 振り込め詐欺 at a stroke — for several years the NPA heading was 「振り込め詐欺を始めとする特殊詐欺」, with the older term kept as a sub-grouping. From 2026 (令和8年) the NPA reorganised again: ニセ警察詐欺 was broken out as a standalone method and SNS-originated investment and romance fraud were folded in, so any table built on the pre-2026 categories is stale.
Literally
Special fraud — a literal rendering that conveys nothing.
What English gets wrong
Two errors. Translating it literally as "special fraud", which means nothing to an English reader. And using the superseded term 振り込め詐欺 for current data — the NPA umbrella has been 特殊詐欺 since 2012, and the older term appears nowhere in current statistics.
What to write instead
tokushu sagi (remote, non-contact fraud). State which series a figure comes from, because the NPA keeps more than one.
Related
- Furikome sagi — 振り込め詐欺
Sources
- National Police Agency, 特殊詐欺 statistical releases
- National Police Agency, Organized Crime Department