Film examines Japan's criminal justice system

By Keiji Hirano

TOKYO —

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has produced a documentary film on Japan’s criminal justice system, featuring the acquittal of 12 defendants in an election law violation case in Kagoshima Prefecture, to raise public awareness of the problematic aspects of the legal system.

In the 50-minute film titled, ‘‘Presumed Guilty—Creating False Confessions,’’ the former defendants talk about how they were forced to confess by investigators during interrogations.

The JFBA plans to screen a summarized version of the film on Tuesday in Geneva. The U.N. Human Rights Council will examine the human rights conditions in Japan on Friday in a universal periodic review, according to a Tokyo-based lawyer Shinichiro Koike.

‘‘I hope many people at home, as well as abroad, including those who are concerned with the U.N. panel, will watch this film and realize that confessions are ‘created,’’’ said Koike, who was involved in producing the film and will visit Geneva to appeal on behalf of the JFBA on human rights issues.

‘‘And I expect it to contribute to improving Japan’s judicial system,’’ he added.

The 12 people were charged with buying votes or accepting money for their votes in the 2003 Kagoshima prefectural assembly election.

One of them said in the film that detectives told him, ‘‘You violated the (election) law and took the money, didn’t you?’’

‘‘I said, ‘No, I didn’t,’ but they again intimidated me, saying, ‘Yes, you did!’ And I repeated, ‘No, I didn‘t,’’’ the ex-defendant said. One of the detectives ‘‘was rough, around 40 years old, and he kept kicking the desk and the wall.’’

According to another man, an investigator told him that once his arrest is reported in the papers, there will be no future for his children and he would lose his honor and possessions.

‘‘They didn’t listen to me,’’ he said. ‘‘I became hopeless and threw myself into the river,’’ in an attempt to commit suicide.

Shinichi Nakayama, who ran and won the election, was among the 12 and was detained for 395 days.

‘‘The police even kneeled down on the ground in front of me and even begged me to admit to the vote buying at least once,’’ he told the interviewer. ‘‘The police tried so hard to extract a false statement...I was shocked.’’

Koike, the lawyer, who has been working to improve the criminal judicial system for the past 30 years, said, ‘‘I have come to a new realization our system is in a terrible state than I thought through producing the film.’’

Even if a person is summoned by police on a voluntary basis, he or she is sometimes questioned for 14 hours a day without a break, and is scrutinized even when going to the bathroom, according to Koike.

‘‘Under these circumstances, anybody, even me, a lawyer, would be exhorted to make confessions,’’ he said.

As a result of the Kagoshima election case, a former senior police officer was found guilty in March for his offensive interrogation method. The Fukuoka District Court said the police officer had ‘‘sharply deviated from the permissible level of investigative questioning of suspects.’’ The ex-officer has appealed the ruling.

The film also touches on another case of false accusation, in which a woman from Fukuoka Prefecture was acquitted in March of murder and arson.

Prosecutors had claimed she confessed her crimes to her cellmate while she was in police custody. However, the Fukuoka District Court rejected the argument, ruling, ‘‘It was as if the defendant had undergone questioning via the cellmate...It is not an appropriate investigative method to use the situation in detention.’’

In a bid to make criminal investigations fair, the JFBA has sought to abolish the use of ‘‘substitute prison,’’ known as ‘‘Daiyo Kangoku’’ in Japanese. It is used to keep pretrial suspects in police custody. The JFBA is also seeking to introduce video and audio recordings of the entire interrogation process to ensure transparency.

In light of such claims, the U.N. Committee against Torture expressed grave concerns in May last year about major human rights issues in Japan, including the use of ‘‘Daiyo Kangoku.’’

The Geneva-based committee said that ‘‘Daiyo Kangoku’’ is abuse of the detainees’ rights and ‘‘may lead to a de facto disrespect of the principles of the presumption of innocence, the right to silence and the right to defense.’’

In the face of these moves, the National Police Agency formalized a plan in early April to partially film and record interrogations of criminal suspects in some murder and robbery cases to verify the credibility of interrogation records, and thus prevent false accusations obtained from forced confessions.

While there is criticism that a partial recording is not enough to make interrogations transparent, Koike said he believes the efforts of lawyers and human rights advocates, as well as international organizations, have slowly pushed Japanese authorities to amend their investigative methods.

‘‘I expect our documentary film, ‘Presumed Guilty,’ to contribute to a healthy reform of the criminal justice system’’ prior to the introduction of the lay judge system next year, which will mostly handle murder and other serious crimes, he said.

7 Comments

pathat at 10:40 AM JST - 5th May

Good timing on this, especially with the, "Death row inmate becomes cause celebre," thread going on JT. The criminal justice system, and the criminal aspects of how those involved in dispensing justice go about their business, needs to be put under much closer scrutiny.

And to think the "lay-judge system" will go into effect one year from now.
NeoJamal at 01:31 PM JST - 5th May

This is an open invitation for western countries to ask the Japanese government to create extra-territorial terror offences against inchoate terrorist acts committed in their respective countries, this draconian due process is criminal due process nonetheless that is established in a G8 country that purports to be a democracy that follows the rule of law. Japan's criminal justice system and its international obscurity is something probably envied by US and British authorities in the fight against terror.
GrouchyGaijin at 06:54 PM JST - 5th May

Excellent topic: Japan's Justice System IS Criminal!
borscht at 02:28 AM JST - 6th May

NeoJamal, I almost understood what you wrote, but not quite.

On topic, will the right wingers in and out of office jump on this like they did "Yasukuni"? Will Hatoyama see it? If he sees it will he repeat that there are "enough checks and balances"?
WhiteHawk at 03:07 AM JST - 6th May

I hope I get to see this film. I've often wondered how and why so many people in Japan confess to their crimes. Contrast that to the U.S.
tako10 at 03:09 PM JST - 6th May

After the lay judge system go into effect next year, they will probably modify the criminal justice system. Then perhaps, we will see a news headline that says “Police didn’t stop Yaks firing guns right outside the crowded Toei-Oedo line entrance at 11:30 pm because the officers did not have articulable reason to stop them.”
Hughgarse at 12:26 PM JST - 7th May

good stuff! give the whole system a long deserved kick in the teeth.