Four thefts of baggage containing jewelry have occurred on Shinkansen bullet trains since last November, with the perpetrators allegedly substituting empty cases for jeweler’s bags containing gems just before the trains departed from JR Tokyo Station. The thefts have made insurers reluctant to sign contracts with jewelers, informed sources said.

Total losses in the four thefts have reached nearly 400 million yen, with only the first of the four cases having been solved.
Some jewelry companies have blamed careless staff, and the jewelry industry association has begun preparing manuals to raise employee awareness on luggage theft on trains.

“It is nothing other than carelessness. If this carries on, insurance premiums will be raised, which would damage the entire industry,” said Haruo Miyashita, executive director of the Japan Jewelry Association, which has a membership of about 1,000 jewelry companies. Miyashita said he was tired of seeing the same pattern reoccur after cautioning the association’s members repeatedly last year not to leave their jewelry unattended on trains.
All four jewel thefts occurred on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line before departure from Tokyo Station.

The first robbery took place on the morning of Nov. 27, when a jewelry wholesaler from Kofu left the train for a few minutes, leaving a bag containing about 100 million yen worth of jewelry unattended on the train’s overhead luggage rack.

An hour later, police arrested two suspects, a Colombian and a Mexican, in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, after tracing signals from a radio transmitter installed in the bag for security.

However, a series of similar thefts were reported after the incident. On Dec. 7, 120 million yen worth of jewelry belonging to a jewelry processing company was stolen. Two other cases were reported on Jan. 7, one in which an employee of a jewelry wholesaler was robbed of about 45 million yen worth of jewelry and another in which a bag belonging to different wholesaler that contained about 100 million yen in jewelry was stolen from a train.

In the three later cases, the salesmen did not leave their bags unattended, but they failed to realize their bags had been stolen while stowed between the seatback and wall of the train.

All four victims traveled to Tokyo Station on the JR Yamanote Line from Okachimachi Station in Taito Ward, Tokyo, where about 2,000 jewelry shops operate. Police suspect the robbers could have followed people carrying large bags leaving Okachimachi Station.

“I wonder why people fail to keep a close watch on their bags while knowing this kind of robbery has been taking place. Another problem for investigators is that they do not report the thefts early enough,” a senior investigator at Marunouchi Police Station.

The third theft was not reported until 30 minutes after the train departed from Tokyo Station, and in the fourth case it took the victim 40 minutes to report the theft after he realized the bag had been stolen.

“I think jewelers are not so worried because they are covered by insurance. Jewelry sales have dropped to half of what they were during the bubble-economy days and sometimes they can even earn when their jewelry is stolen,” a jewelry wholesaler in Taito Ward said.

As a countermeasure, some insurance companies no longer sell insurance on jewelry while others have suspended sales of policies on jewelry for the time being.
“The size of insurance payouts for jewelers is large compared with the number of policies for the jewelry industry. If similar types of cases continue, we will need to tighten conditions for the jewelry industry,” an official of a major nonlife insurance company said.

The president of the jewelry company involved in one case complained that the company’s staff are not trained as security guards. However, the Japan Jewelry Association said luggage lifting is not armed robbery and can be prevented by enhanced vigilance.

The association plans to distribute a crime-prevention manual that will be ready by the end of the month.