Yahoo Japan has an Alert applications which can provide Alerts to disasters, Weather as well as alerts on suspicious people.
Awareness is important. I am sure that such alerts can reduce the number of such events, as parents will report (and catch) suspicious people in the vicinity of the alert.
On the other hand, it is scary. I immediately check the location and try to figure out if my kids are in the neighbourhood.
I often hear that “it wasn’t like this back in the days”, but I truly think it is all about the availability of information.When I was a child we probably received a warning “stay away from that area, that man. he is strange”. We now get a warning about events as they happen including location.
In the image, a warning about a suspicious person, which performed some indecent act. Terms in Japanese are not clear enough to understand the nature of the act.
