/ 22 July 2005

Twelve million visitors and four pickpockets

Japan is living up to its reputation as a safe country with the World Exposition, where only four of the 12-million visitors have been pickpocketed, the event’s chief said on Thursday.

Even some of those may have simply misplaced their belongings while visiting the international showcase of technology in central Aichi province, expo secretary general Toshio Nakamura said.

Assuming all were real thefts and there were no unreported cases, it means that 0,00003% of expo visitors in four months have been pickpocketed.

“The security level at the expo is the same as at an international airport,” Nakamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

He said the site is under the constant watch of 1 000 security guards, 200 police officers and hundreds of surveillance cameras.

The 21st century’s first World Exposition has also put to work security robots, which can detect bombs and shoot paint bullets to keep order.

A stream of global dignitaries has come to tour the expo, which has a theme of eco-friendly technology and features a frozen mammoth dug up in Siberia. — AFP