Amid concerns about the recidivism rate, hundreds of companies are working with the government to provide jobs to those released from correctional facilities to help them return to society.
On a recent winter afternoon, Masahiro Okamoto, the president of a steeplejack firm in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, who had problems with drug abuse as a youth, addressed 26 inmates at a prison in Tochigi Prefecture about his company's support program.
"I think it would be a great advantage for you to secure jobs before you get out and return to society," he told them.