Kenjiro Osawa has spent the past 15 years inviting parolees to his Tokyo home every other week for a brief chit-chat to make sure they are managing their lives outside the walls of prison.

A "hogoshi" volunteer probation officer, Osawa, a 68-year-old resident of Taito Ward, says he has lost count of appointments parolees under his charge ignored.

But of all the determined rule-breakers, certain people, he realized, behave extremely well, are always punctual, and affable: the repeaters.