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Sherri · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 1:51 pm Post subject: Justice in Japan

Has anyone out there been following the case of the British guy who was given 14 years imprisonment for allegedly smuggling drugs into Japan? Have a look at this link for more information. It is a very scary to think how badly people can be treated after being arrested here, whether or not they are guilty.

www.justicefornickbaker.org

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Well, while anyone would have to feel a certain amount of sympathy with the case, the website doesn't seem totally unbiased in itself (which is understandable too). Take this for instance:

"There exists within the Japanese criminal justice system an antiquated, barbaric and draconian investigatory process known as daiyo kangoku, which translates as "substitute prison." "

Nuff said?

cangel · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 74 Location: Jeonju, South Korea

Anyone who knows anything about the criminal justice system in Japan knows that substitute prison does exist and that their laws regarding interrogation, detention, and access to counsel is third world. All the major human rights oversight agencies to include the U.N., have written damaging reports criticizing Japan for their methods. While the article in question may not be without bias, does not mean that their objections to the process are not valid.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Sherri · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 11:38 pm Post subject:

While I am not defending US treatment of prisoners in Guantanomo Bay it is not really a comparable situation. The prisoners at Guantanomo are prisoners of war, the British guy in question is a civilian. If the same thing had happened to him in the US or in the UK, even if he were found guilty I doubt that he would have been given 14 years of hard labor (with an extra 500 days tacked on if his family doesn't pay 5 million yen)! He also would not have been held for 20 odd days without access to a lawyer or a telephone. Nor would he have been held for a year in solitary for contesting his case.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

But then Japan doesn't suffer from the social problems that the UK does and they have tougher sentencing. A correlation I believe.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

cangel · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 74 Location: Jeonju, South Korea

The prisoners at Guantanimo are not POWs but enemy combatants and thus are not entitled to the conditions set forth in the Genevea Convention. And just to clarify matters further, the original Geneva Convention did address enemy combatants and the delegates chose not to include them.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Cangel, I thought the point was that they are human beings... just like Nick Baker, the British guy in the clink here in Japan.

Sherri · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:29 am Post subject:

The point for me is that Japan's treatment of people when arrested (guilty or not guilty) is so unpredictable and scary. Like I said before I do not totally support the drastic actions taken by the US government especially after 9/11 against terrorists or "enemy combatants " (thank you cangel) and I am certainly not saying the US system is perfect! But I think that a person in the same situation as Nick Baker if arrested in the US would be treated much more fairly.

I guess anyone who has been in Japan for any length of time has heard police arrest horror stories both from Japanese and non-Japanese friends. Through circumstance and bad luck almost anyone here could end up being arrested and detained for several weeks without access to a telephone, interpreter and lawyer. It is worse if you are not Japanese especially in this current climate of "all foreigners commit crime".

People over here teaching English should be aware that they do not necessarily have the same rights that they would expect in their home countries. Keep your nose clean--be extra careful and carry your foreign registration (gaijin) card with you at all times.

kimo · Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 668

How was the guy duped? How did he end up with the false-bottom suitcase? Was there some complicity? Draconian laws or not, for you guys who use it and bring it in, there are consequences that could be paid. Is it worth the risks?

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

Further to Sherri`s point, Schmooj, the justice system here also denies Japanese citizens basic rights if they fall foul of the justice system -
irrespective of whether they have committed a crime or not.

The police can detain a Japanese person here for up to 60 days I think - I will check that - without charging them for a crime. There are severe restrictions on what a lawyer can or cannot do in this case for their client, they are denied access to their client, and the Japanese police have come under fire both within Japan and outside Japan (through groups such as Amnesty) for routinely beating those they detain without charging.

The rate of confessions is very high in Japan - and it is naive to think that it is some kind of honest Japanes trait. To plead guilty is to solve problems of legal representation - Japan has the lowest ratio of lawyers to citizens in any industrialised country and it is a known fact that any litigation or pursuit of legal action for other things is notorious for taking so long that for innocent people to plead guility is not unusual and ordinary people cannot pursue actions against corporations or groups that are cheating them, etc.

As a Brit I also say that social problems appear to be worse in the Uk because these problems are more open and discussed freely. In Japan the biggest social problem is organised crime - let`s just say it goes under the Y word - which controls life here to an extraordinary degree.

This huge social problem caused the economic problems that came after the collapse of the Bubble Economy (most of the unpaid loans are held by organised crime-connected businesses), is present in many respectable companies and banks which are beholden to Y shareholders, and is one of the reason why the cost of living is so high here.

So much public money is siphoned off by organised crime, so many Diet members are beholden to it, and it continues to live parasitically off ordinary citizens. Not to mention the enormous sex industry in Japan which is not a victimless crime when you consider the human cost, especially of Asian and other women who are nothing more than sex slaves.

The Japanese justice system needs to target organised crime rather than hold uncharged prisoners who many or may not have committed crimes. Organised crime is the biggest social problem in Japan and it is bigger than that in the Uk and many other countries.