It's More Profitable to Steal Fruits Than Jewelry in Japan (6 pics)

You know that in Japan even ordinary fruits are not that cheap, and there is also a very developed market for “elite fruits”. Square watermelons for 500 dollars, individual peaches for several dozen dollars. So it is not surprising that a whole generation of very specific criminals has already been raised in Japan – they steal expensive fruits!





Each bunch is grown individually, covered with a cap

You can live well by stealing a couple of apples

The peak of thefts in Japan, naturally, falls during the harvest season. That's why both the owners of orchards and plantations and the police are on guard during these periods. But every year there is still a series of daring thefts, almost in the spirit of ninjas.

The most frequent place for raids is Yamanashi Prefecture, where the fruits are specially sealed in cones so that they grow into a strictly defined shape. One peach from local orchards costs 800 yen apiece.



Beautiful? 5 dollars, the price at the farm and in the store is higher

Not that you can get rich, you say?

But in 2023, 17,000 peaches were stolen from local orchards in Yamanashi. The total damage from the theft of peaches alone was 4,000,000 yen.

And it's not just peaches that grow there! The total damage from the theft of fruit was 8,500,000 yen. Firefighters had to be called in to patrol the orchards along with farmers and police officers, and the thefts still continued.

How to make money on fruits





We also sell such grapes at a high price, but the taste is quite ordinary

The thing is that in Japan, the fruit market works differently than here. You don't need to sell the fruits you've picked on the road, as private garden owners do here. Fruits are often considered a good gift here, so beautiful peaches or apples "fly away" through apps before they have time to spoil.

To hide their tracks, Vietnamese are hired to steal fruits. But the organizers of the thefts are always Japanese, who know what exactly to steal and where the varieties of expensive fruits grow.



Old photo of yubari melons for $160, now more expensive

Japan is now thriving "yami-baito". A new form of crime, different from the yakuza. If the yakuza is a family of criminals with its own hierarchy. Then yami-baito is like hiring a freelance performer for a one-time crime and paying him online through an app.

That is, you conceived a crime and found a performer for it - brilliant and simple. And theft of fruit turned out to be very simple and convenient for ordering crimes on the Internet.



The police catch about one in four thieves. Are they good at stealing or is the police helpless?

Last year, 300 bunches of grapes worth 750,000 yen were stolen in Saga Prefecture. The thieves worked at night, picking the best bunches with their own hands. Which suggests that the theft of grapes could even have been ordered by a competitor who taught the thieves which bunches are best to take and which look the most valuable.

All stores in Japan are locked, guarded as usual, and are of less interest to thieves. Pear orchards and vineyards are a different matter!



A square watermelon is considered a prestigious gift for a boss or senior colleague

I can imagine that if someone at our dachas would dig potatoes all night, how much would he dig up – a couple of dollars? Not that big of a deal!