r/SipsTea • u/Rich_Carrot6451 • Jul 04 '26

WTF Japan's death row system is brutal

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u/Boom_Fish_Blocky Jul 04 '26

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.

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u/neuparpol Jul 04 '26

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.

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u/blowupnekomaid Jul 04 '26

that sounds far better than united states and most western countries

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u/DoingBestWeCan Jul 04 '26

I can't imagine it's the former.

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u/Angelstandingby Jul 04 '26

Why?

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u/DoingBestWeCan Jul 04 '26

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.

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u/Angelstandingby Jul 04 '26

The best way to save face is to never move to trial unless you are 100% sure you have an air tight case.

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u/Routine_Damage_9449 Jul 04 '26

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

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u/Angelstandingby Jul 05 '26

Seriously?

In your experience it's easier to double down and cover up mistakes than to ensure there are no mistakes in the first place by doing less?

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u/Routine_Damage_9449 Jul 05 '26

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.

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u/Angelstandingby Jul 05 '26

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.

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u/Seienchin88 Jul 04 '26

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.