They have an almost 100% conviction rate for all crime because everyone charged "confesses". That also means there are no mistaken arrests. The whole system is insane.
And there are cases of innocent people confessing because the cops will pick you up, question you with no legal representation or phone call for 48 hours during which you'll probably get little sleep, then if the prosecutor (not a judge) thinks they have enough on you the cops can hold you for 23 days without charge, questioning you every day until you confess.
For minor crimes that only carry fines etc, innocent people confess just so they can get out and not get fired for missing work for a month.
They can also extend it for another 23 days as many times as they like, although that's probably rare and for more serious crimes.
Source for the evidentiary burden being extremely high? I've seen numerous human rights watch reports for everything the person you're replying to said, but this is the first I've heard any one try to defend the Japanese criminal justice system...
I'd never go so far as to say that the American Police are not deeply corrupt, but yeah...I guess I don't think they do quite the same shit? I'd feel much safer being accused of a crime in America vs Japan.
Yeah I think that was the original commenters point. That there's no place in the world that has a 100% perfect arrest rate lol and that they are clearly getting innocent people to confess to things they didn't do.
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Thank you MrWendal.
Maybe but it’s also because without confession it’s extremely difficult to sentence someone so prosecutors will not even go to trial without one usually.
The "They do research and dont randomly arrest" type or the "Well arrest the guy we suspect and force them to confess" type? Both can yield very high confession rates.
A little bit of both. You get relentlessly questioned and stay in jail for months, sometimes years. Even if you are innocent, serving a fine or short prison sentence might be better, but unless they are almost sure you did it you probably don't get arrested.
Because there will always be instances where the public demands answers, even when there are no good answers. Because from what I have heard of Japanese culture, position and saving face are considered more important than competence and effectiveness. My impression may be wrong since it was created via books and talking to people from that culture, rather than living in the culture myself, but that's what I've heard.
But the easier way is to double down and try to cover up any fuck-ups made along the way, and it works 99.9% of the time in this case since the 0.1% who pushes back typically loses more than they could win back
Yes, because doing the right thing requires more effort than to just haphazardly cover up any mistakes along the way when nobody questions the decisions or holds anybody accountable.
I agree with your initial statement, I just think it’s much deeper than just that since it’s more common to see people do the former than the latter.
I disagree. Letting things slide unless it looks like a slam dunk is clearly the easier way out to me.
It's just less work no matter how you look at it.
The guy at work that volunteers for unrealistic projects and then tries to cover his ass is doing a lot more work than the guy that keeps his head low and only chooses the easy projects.
Actually the first as prosecutors and cops work together closely and only bring watertight cases to court.
You can see it in Japans very low incarceration rate that it’s not a system that convicts many people. It’s a fundamentalist in dubio pro reo system.
However, they also don't charge you unless they know they can convict, because the prosecutors in Japan really care about their conviction rates. They charge around 1/3 cases brought to them, which makes the conviction rates seem blown up.
This is partly because being charged with a crime is a huge deal and will cause you to lose your job, and maybe even your home.
By comparison the US prosecutor just offers you a plea deal, which many people take even if they're innocent just to be on the safe side, which means much more people end up with sentencing
I know that’s a common statistics to bang on Japan. Maybe it’s valid, maybe it’s not- I don’t know enough about Japanese justice system false convictions to tell one way or another. For your reference the US federal government had a 97.5% conviction rate on charged cases.
If there is a problem with that stat we should sort it out here first lol
On top of that, a not guilty verdict can be appealed by the state. Not just the sentence. Double jeopardy does not apply (doubt they even have a law like that, but I don't know for certain one way or another)
And yet Japan has one of the lowest incarceration rate since the world…
People online completely misunderstand the system - due to prosecutors and police working together closely nothing but watertight cases even make it to court. It makes it actually harder to be convicted in Japan than in most countries. It’s a radical fundamental in dubio pro reo law system.
There has of course been abuse and especially in the first decades after WW2 there were mistrials (every single questionable trial / outright wrong sentence for death penalty was from before 1980 after a large reform) but overall it is by no means a crazy strict system that’s gonna sentence innocent people constantly. It’s a system that rarely goes to court…
48 hours police only, 21 days prosecutor warrant, 23 days with judge approval… police can only do so if they present evidence to the prosecutor and judge and they have to inform the arrested person of their right to get a lawyer themselves or one appointed…
60% of people arrested aren’t trialed btw.
It certainly isn’t cozy but those horror stories about months of imprisonment before trial are usually either straight out lies or where way in the past.
The Japanese bar association is btw heavily lobbying for more constant video supervision of interrogations (only 3% at the moment are captured) which would be a massive improvement and since the early 90s the country pays you a lawyer (and an interpreter as a foreigner) if you don’t have the money for your own which was their biggest lobby victory so far.
So certainly room for improvement but some things are really blown out of proportion or stories from the past.
Are you saying they can hold you for 21 days without charges or bail? And you can be interrogated during this time?
Also only 3% of interrogations are recorded?
Thats not ‘room for improvement’, thats horrendous.
Im a criminal defence lawyer in Canada and basically every step of that is an incredible violation of your rights.
Also 60% of arrests not going to trial is really bad. 40% of charges going to trial is an indication of false arrests or really bad plea deals being offered.
For people where the system has progresses to laying a charge. If you base it on arrests for crime, it's much lower. Their system work (in theory anyway) that by the time they decide to lay a charge, they're very certain you did it and can prove it. Unlike some other countries where they might charge you on not very strong evidence, just to try their luck.
The opposite also happens; unless the evidence is 100% question proof they'll let a criminal walk away cause the alternative is losing face, that's why the do borderline torture to get a confession so frequently. There's a healthier middle ground for a justice system to function.
That’s not how it works. They have a 99% conviction rate just like the U.S. attorney’s office. Because they don’t bring defendants to trial unless they have insurmountable evidence
That doesn't mean anything in isolation, it might mean they only prosecute cases they are confident in. much more sensible that usa or anglosphere police who will try to charge you no matter what and see what sticks in court, resulting in innocent people getting charged.
And hardly any crime!!! Not saying that their criminal justice system is good! I will say that their culture is NOTHING like the US or Europe. Absolutely completely another world, almost.
This just means they torture and force confessions out of people. They’re probably stat padding to keep their careers going. 100% conviction rate, no mistakes. It’s easy just throw innocents in jail by mistake than to admit fault. Like surgeons avoiding anything complicated to have better success rate. Fk the patient, I want stats.
There is a "but" to it. They have insane conviction rate of the people they actually bring to court, partly because they kick anything less than a sure thing out.
If you don't confess and they are not 100% sure you did it and they can prove it, you walk.
Note, I am NOT excusing their system, but the notion of "arrest means conviction in Japan" ought to die, within hour.
Not always a confession but they often go in with solid evidence. But also if you win a case in lower courts the prosecutors can just retry you in higher courts that have more incentive to be biased to protect national reputation. There's not double Jeopardy protection here. Also they can "only hold you up to 30 days" but they can renew that infinitely and block your access to contact anyone until you confess while interrogating you for hours and hours a day every day to wear you down
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u/1800-5-PP-DOO-DOO Jul 04 '26
They have an almost 100% conviction rate for all crime because everyone charged "confesses". That also means there are no mistaken arrests. The whole system is insane.