The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered the central government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay ¥160 million in damages to a machine manufacturing company, ruling that the firm was wrongly accused of exporting equipment that could be converted into weapons without government approval.
The case involving Ohkawara Kakohki, a Yokohama-based manufacturer of spray dryers, has once again highlighted problems in the nation’s criminal justice system. In Japan, interrogations by police and prosecutors are conducted in closed rooms without the presence of defense lawyers, which has resulted in a number of coerced confessions and wrongful prosecutions of innocent individuals.
Presiding Judge Tsuyoshi Momosaki issued the order for damages to be paid, having ruled that the arrest, detention and indictment of the firm’s three executives was illegal. The plaintiffs, which included the firm, two executives and the family members of a deceased employee, had sought damages totaling of ¥560 million.
Judge Momosaki said that the police could have obtained evidence that the equipment did not meet the criteria to be subject to export regulations if they had followed protocol and carried out the investigation properly, and that the prosecutors indicted the firm with insufficient evidence.
In March 2020, Masaaki Okawara, the president of the firm, and two other senior officials, were arrested on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, despite fully cooperating with the investigation for about 15 months through February 2020. The three were indicted in March 2020, but prosecutors dropped their charges in July 2021, days before the first court hearing.
One of those arrested, Shizuo Aijima, who was a senior adviser at the firm, died from cancer after falling ill during his detention. His requests for bail had been denied eight times by prosecutors and judges.
Spray dryers are used to form a dry powder from a liquid by spraying it into hot air to evaporate moisture. They are used to manufacture a wide range of products such as instant coffee and medicine, but they can also be used to develop biological weapons.
As such, products with certain specifications are subject to export controls by the Australia Group, a multilateral export-control arrangement involving 42 countries, including Japan, and the European Union.
Under this arrangement, companies in Japan making certain spray dryers must obtain approval from the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry before exporting them.
The police alleged that the company was aware the spray dryers they exported were subject to regulations but chose not to obtain approval.
Okawara maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, stating that he had judged that their spray dryer did not require government approval.
While in custody, Okawara and two other senior officials — Junji Shimada and Aijima — exercised their “right to remain silent” during the interrogation, intending to prove their innocence in court.
Okawara and Shimada, who was the director in charge of exports, were finally granted bail in February 2021. Aijima died in detention, two days after the other two were granted bail.
In July 2021, in an extremely rare scenario, the prosecutors voluntarily dropped the charges, citing difficulty in proving that the equipment was subject to export controls. Head prosecutor Takako Tsukabe, however, maintained that there “was no error in her decision to prosecute them” and said that she would do it again if assigned the same case, according to media reports.
“I am happy with the ruling overall, though I have some grievances,” Okawara said after the ruling. “The biggest feeling I have now is, ‘Why did Aijima-san have to die?’”
Shimada said the government should carefully examine why such illegal acts were committed during the investigation.
“I want the state to make sure an incident like this never happens again,” he added.
Due to the false charges, the company's sales decreased by 40% and banks also refused to provide loans, but no compensation for this was included in the amount of damages sought, Okawara said during a news conference on Dec. 19.
The case began garnering attention after a police officer testified in court in late June that the Tokyo police fabricated evidence during the investigation that had led to the arrest of the president and two executives in the company.
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