In preparation for the lay judge system, which recently started, public prosecutors and police began partially videotaping the interrogation of suspects on a trial basis in August 2006 and in September 2008. The videotaped scenes are of investigators reading the record of a suspect's oral statement to the suspect, who then signs it. The videotaping serves as evidence.
But the experience of Mr. Toshikazu Sugaya, who was released in June on the strength of a new DNA test indicating his innocence — after he had served 17 years of a life sentence for the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture — appears to reinforce the case for videotaping all of the interrogation process.
Mr. Sugaya said he got scared during his interrogation after police officers shouted in his face, pulled his hair and kicked him. The interrogation lasted 13 hours. Confronted with the result of an original DNA test in the crime, he confessed to it.