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Japan The Penal System
Prisons, in existence in some feudal domains as early
as the
late sixteenth century, originally functioned to hold
people for
trial or prior to execution. Because of the costs and
difficulties
involved in long-term incarceration and the prevailing
standards of
justice that called for sentences of death or exile for
serious
crimes, life imprisonment was rare. Facilities were used
sometimes
for shorter confinement. Prisoners were treated according
to their
social status and housed in barracks-like quarters
(see Seclusion and Social Control
, ch. 1). In some cases, the position of
prison
officer was hereditary, and staff vacancies were filled by
relatives.
During the Meiji period (1868-1912), the country
adopted
Western-style penology along with systems of law and legal
administration. In 1888 an aftercare hostel (halfway
house) was
opened for released prisoners. Staffed mainly by
volunteers, this
institution helped ex-convicts reenter society. Many
ex-convicts
had been ostracized by their families for the shame they
had
incurred and had literally nowhere to go. The Prison Law
of 1908
provided basic rules and regulations for prison
administration,
stipulating separate facilities for those sentenced to
confinement
with and without labor and for those detained for trial
and short
sentences.
The Juvenile Law of 1922 established administrative
organs to
handle offenders under the age of eighteen and recognized
volunteer
workers officially as the major forces in the
community-based
treatment of juveniles. After World War II, juvenile laws
were
revised to extend their jurisdiction to those under the
age of
twenty. Volunteer workers were reorganized under a new law
and
remain an indispensable part of the rehabilitation system.
The Correctional Bureau of the Ministry of Justice
administers
the adult prison system as well as the juvenile
correctional system
and three women's guidance homes (to rehabilitate
prostitutes). The
ministry's Rehabilitation Bureau operates the probation
and parole
systems. Prison personnel are trained at an institute in
Tokyo and
in branch training institutes in each of the eight
regional
correctional headquarters under the Correctional Bureau.
Professional probation officers study at the Legal
Training and
Research Institute of the Ministry of Justice.
In 1990 Japan's prison population stood at somewhat
less than
47,000; nearly 7,000 were in short-term detention centers,
and the
remaining 40,000 were in prisons. Approximately 46 percent
were
repeat offenders. Japanese recidivism was attributed
mainly to the
discretionary powers of police, prosecutors, and courts
and to the
tendency to seek alternative sentences for first
offenders.
The penal system is intended to resocialize, reform,
and
rehabilitate offenders. On confinement, prisoners are
first
classified according to gender, nationality, kind of
penalty,
length of sentence, degree of criminality, and state of
physical
and mental health. They are then placed in special
programs
designed to treat individual needs. Vocational and formal
education
are emphasized, as is instruction in social values. Most
convicts
engage in labor, for which a small stipend is set aside
for use on
release. Under a system stressing incentives, prisoners
are
initially assigned to community cells, then earn better
quarters
and additional privileges based on their good behavior.
Although a few juvenile offenders are handled under the
general
penal system, most are treated in separate juvenile
training
schools. More lenient than the penal institutions, these
facilities
provide correctional education and regular schooling for
delinquents under the age of twenty.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the government's
responsibility for social order does not end with
imprisoning an
offender, but also extends to aftercare treatment and to
noninstitutional treatment to substitute for or supplement
prison
terms. A large number of those given suspended sentences
are
released to the supervision of volunteer officers under
the
guidance of professional probation officers. Adults are
usually
placed on probation for a fixed period, and juveniles are
placed on
probation until they reach the age of twenty. Volunteers
are also
used in supervising parolees, although professional
probation
officers generally supervise offenders considered to have
a high
risk of recidivism. Volunteers hail from all walks of life
and
handle no more than five cases at one time. They are
responsible
for overseeing the offenders' conduct to prevent the
occurrence of
further offenses. Volunteer probation officers also offer
guidance
and assistance to the ex-convict in assuming a law-abiding
place in
the community. Although volunteers are sometimes
criticized for
being too old compared with their charges (more than 70
percent are
retired and are age fifty-five or over) and thus unable to
understand the problems their charges faced, most
authorities
believe that the volunteers are critically important in
the
nation's criminal justice system.
Public support and cooperation with law enforcement
officials
help hold down Japan's crime rate, with little or no
threat to
internal security. The external security threat in the is
also
considerably reduced from previous years. The Japanese
government
is confident that diplomatic activity and a limited SDF,
backed by
United States treaty commitments, will be sufficient to
deter any
potential adversary.
* * *
The most comprehensive treatment of the SDF is
available in
Jieitai nenkan (Self-Defense Forces Yearbook), the
annual
white paper published by Boei Nippo (Defense
Daily), and
Defense of Japan, published by Japan's Defense
Agency. Other
sources include James H. Buck's The Modern Japanese
Military
System, Harrison M. Holland's Managing Defense,
and
Malcolm McIntosh's Japan Re-armed. The
International
Institute for Strategic Studies' annual The Military
Balance
provides current data on the size, budget, and equipment
inventory
of the armed forces. Reinhard Drifte's Arms Production
in
Japan gives insight into Japan's developing defense
industry.
The Police of Japan, published by Japan's
National
Police Agency, gives an excellent overview of the police
system.
Keisatsu hakusho (Police White Paper), published
annually by
the same agency, gives updated law enforcement information
and
crime figures.
Journals such as Japan Quarterly [Tokyo], Far
Eastern
Economic Review [Hong Kong], and Summaries of
Selected
Japanese Magazines (issued monthly by the United
States embassy
in Tokyo) frequently cover issues in defense and internal
security
and public order. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of January 1994
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