The Matsumoto Boys Prison in Nagano prefecture is the only punitive facility in Japan with a public junior high school. It has been the subject of two TBS documentaries, and on Monday the network will present a true-life drama that takes place in the school.
In “Hei no Naka Chugakko” (“Junior High School Between the Walls”; 9 p.m.), Joe Odagiri plays Junpei, a failed photographer who has been teaching at a reformatory for five years when he is transferred to the Matsumoto facility as a teacher. His class will consist of five long-term convicts selected from prisons all over Japan. The prisoners range in age from 22 to 76.
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