2025.Jul.31

REPORTS

Report on the 1st BAIRAL Research Meeting for Fiscal Year 2025
“Watching and Being Watched: When Environmental Design Meets Crime Prevention”

The 1st BAIRAL research meeting for 2025 was held on June 11, 2025. This time, we invited Dr. Sihan YANG, a Project Researcher at the Collaborative Community Design Lab, University of Tokyo, to speak on the theme of “Watching and Being Watched: When Environmental Design Meets Crime Prevention.”

Dr. Yang presented her research on crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) with a focus on smart surveillance in Japan, particularly in Kakogawa City. With a PhD in urban engineering, her work bridges urban planning and community-level crime studies. She began with historical theories of crime prevention, referencing influential ideas such as Jane Jacobs’ “eyes on the street” and Oscar Newman’s “defensible space,” evolving into CPTED’s six principles like surveillance, access control, and territoriality.

Her talk contextualized these ideas within the smart city paradigm, discussing the role of technologies like GIS crime mapping and AI-driven surveillance. She emphasized the increasing integration of digital surveillance in Japan, especially in small cities. Kakogawa, once known for high crime rates, implemented over 1,500 “Mimamori” surveillance cameras covering all residential zones. These cameras, often paired with Bluetooth tag detectors, provide real-time location tracking for vulnerable individuals, such as elderly residents with dementia or schoolchildren, enhancing both security and community trust.

Dr. Yang’s fieldwork in Kakogawa involved site inspections and resident surveys across three distinct districts—central, suburban, and residential. Her findings indicated that while camera density was highest across all areas, crime rates and perceived safety varied significantly. Notably, areas with better environmental design and active community engagement exhibited lower crime rates, suggesting that surveillance alone is insufficient. Social cohesion and urban design significantly influenced public security outcomes.

Residents showed high acceptance of surveillance technologies, attributed to both proactive governmental transparency and limited interpersonal community ties, prompting reliance on technology for safety. Dr. Yang noted a cultural alignment in Japan that supports collective responsibility and order, illustrated by neighborhood nameplates and local participation in digital monitoring efforts.

She concluded by reflecting on ethical dilemmas such as privacy intrusion, potential discrimination, and over-reliance on technology. Her study underscores that while smart surveillance contributes to urban safety, sustainable crime prevention requires a balance of technological infrastructure, human participation, and inclusive urban design. Her final message: digital eyes and human eyes must complement—not replace—each other in building safer communities.