TOKYO, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The number of children reported by the police to welfare authorities as being suspected victims of abuse soared to a record-high in the first half of 2017, the National Police Agency said on Thursday.
According to the agency, Japanese police reported 30,262 children suspected of being abused to welfare authorities, with the number of children aged under 18 being reported by police to welfare centers jumping by 5,751 from a year earlier.
The number topped the 30,000 mark for the first time since comparable data became available in 2011, the agency said.
Minors who were victims of psychological abuse totaled 21,406 in the recording period, which is more than 70 percent of the total.
Children witnessing domestic violence at home spiked by five times to 13,859, compared to comparable figures in the first half of 2012.
Cases of physical abuse stood at 5,723, which is 18.9 percent of the total, and children suffering from neglect totaled 3,036, the equivalent of 10.0 percent of the total.
Sexual abuse cases, meanwhile, stood at 97, or 0.3 percent of 5,723 cases of physical abuse, according to the agency's figures.
There were 519 children who were victims in criminal cases, the latest figures showed, and from these 27 of them died. 273 of the victims were girls and sexual abuse victims comprised 26.0 percent of them, said the agency.
Those investigated for carrying out acts of sexual abuse included the victims' fathers, adoptive fathers or stepfathers, as well as common-law husbands of the victims' mothers, according to the agency.
Investigations into child pornography cases surged to a record high in the recording period and cases of sharing images among pedophiles was also notably high, the records showed.
The victims of child pornography included victims taking illicit images of themselves, secret filming, rapes and indecent assaults of minors, and cases of child prostitution.
Some minors were solicited through community websites, with the victims believing they were sending the images of themselves to girls or friends, rather than the pedophiles who had been grooming them.
