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.