Geographical crime prediction have been the focus of much research in western countries over the past decade and crime prediction systems are already in use several countries including Japan where a prefectural police department have recently introduced a certain system. However there has been no prior research into this field in Japan. This paper presents a systematic review of geographical crime prediction and discusses their relevance to the Japanese context. We identify four categories of geographical crime prediction methods: (1) surveillance of space-time clusters of crime; (2) estimation of crime intensity based on space-time interaction; (3) prediction of crime risk based on environmental factors; and (4) prediction of crime numbers/possibilities. These categories are based on established theories and have been developed independently of each other. Finally, we suggest directions for future developments of this research field in Japan.