Having Your Criminal Case Heard in Japan

If you're a citizen of Japan and have been charged with a crime, you'll be able to have your case heard by one of the country's many courts, including summary courts, district courts, family courts and high courts. However, critics say that prosecutors do not have to disclose the evidence they use to support their accusations, which often leads to suspects being coerced into false confessions.

The court system's reliance on confessions and lengthy pre-trial detention times are just two of the issues that make Japanese criminal justice widely regarded as corrupt and unreliable by domestic critics, who call it "hostage justice" (hitojichi shh). The system is also dogged by a tendency to pursue cases that have little chance of succeeding in court.

Prosecutors in Japan wield tremendous power, as they control the ministry of justice and essentially create laws through their bill proposals, law revisions and amendments, and their application to suspects. These factors, along with the public's eagerness to see convictions, often lead to prosecutors moving forward on cases that they are confident they can win, according to experts. This explains why Japan's conviction rate is so high: 99.9% of those who go to trial end up being found guilty.

One such case involves a tax accountant named Hiroshi Nakamura, who was arrested in October 2016 on suspicion of fraud. He was in the final stages of pancreatic cancer, and was facing the prospect of being locked up for 刑事事件　東京 several months or even a year. His family says he was made to sign a confession by police officers under pressure from the city of Saitama, who were concerned about their job evaluations. He says he was given no time to consult with his lawyer, and that he was interrogated without lawyers for weeks on end.

His conviction was eventually overturned, but he spent another four years in prison on other charges related to his work at his accounting firm. The case has prompted calls for legal reform, including an overhaul of the prosecution office and more transparency in police investigations.

But experts say the bigger issue is changing a culture that prioritizes quick arrests and convictions, demonizes offenders and puts immense trust in police and prosecutors. This culture is likely to lead to wrongful convictions that rob crime victims of justice, too. Narada Masaharu, whose brother was murdered in the 1980s and now leads an organization called Ocean, believes that this case-closed mindset will not change until the nation takes steps to ensure that all suspects receive a fair trial. He says the most critical problem is that the media are rarely independent in their reporting, and instead rely on information provided by police and prosecutors. He believes that if the media were to take a more adversarial approach, it would help to raise standards in the police and prosecutors' offices. "It's an important step to take for the future of our society," he said. "We need to change the culture of this society." "Criminal Case Tokyo" was produced by Associated Press Television in association with The Wall Street Journal and WGBH Boston.