Japanese police to tape all interrogations of suspects facing lay judge trials
Japanese police will make audio and video recordings of the entirety of interrogations in criminal cases subject to lay judge trials on a trial basis starting Oct. 1, according to a new guideline formulated Thursday by the National Police Agency. Transparency efforts in interrogations by ...
Okinawa takes wait-and-see attitude on changes to Japan-U.S. SOFA
Tuesday's announcement by Tokyo and Washington that an agreement has been reached that more narrowly defines those classified as civilians employed by the U.S. military in Japan was greeted with caution by top Okinawan officials, who are taking a wait-and-see attitude. But the new definitions ...
Latest base-linked crime drags SOFA pact back into spotlight
A pact governing the legal status and conduct of U.S. military and nonmilitary personnel in Japan is back under the spotlight following last month's arrest of an American civilian base worker in Okinawa Prefecture suspected of raping and killing a local Japanese woman. Fueled by ...
Convenience store ATM heist sees ¥1.4 billion stolen in two hours across Japan
A total of ¥1.4 billion in cash was stolen from some 1,400 convenience store ATMs across the nation in the space of two hours earlier this month.
FBI joins probe into Flint's 'man-made crisis' water contamination
The FBI is joining a criminal investigation into lead contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, exploring whether any laws were broken in a crisis that has captured international attention. Federal prosecutors in Michigan were working with an investigative team that included the FBI, the U.S. ...
Number of reported crimes in Japan fell to postwar low in 2015
Overall penal code violations decreased 9.3 percent from the previous year to 1,099,048, falling below the previous record of 1,190,549 set in 1973.
Survey offers insights into Japan's death-row inmates' thoughts, feelings and fears
For death-row inmates in Japan, contact with the outside world through visits and the exchange of letters makes life worth living, if only for another day, as they reflect on their crimes or pursue the possibility of retrials. As one might expect, a questionnaire survey ...
New technologies, improved practices may boost number of criminal retrials
The recent release of a couple from prison after a court ordered a 1995 arson-murder case reopened may allow more people convicted of serious crimes to get a second shot at proving their innocence. Technical innovations in DNA forensic science modeled on practices in the ...
Shukan Post prints real name, photo of 1997 Kobe child killer
In a move certain to stir up controversy over the protection of the rights of minors, a weekly magazine publishes the real name and youth photo of a man who, as a teen in 1997, killed two children in Kobe.
Number of quasi-legal drug cases up fivefold in first half of 2015
The number of cases involving quasi-legal drugs that authorities took action against in the first half of 2015 rose to 633, nearly five times more than the 127 reported in the same period the previous year, a police report showed Thursday. The preliminary report by ...
American man arrested for abandoning body of woman found in Kanagawa bay
Police arrested an American man Thursday on suspicion of abandoning the body of a woman found last week in a cove in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Gregory Joseph Gumo, 41, who lives in Yokohama and says he is unemployed, allegedly abandoned the body of Mariko Akitaya, ...
Abe government won't submit conspiracy bill to upcoming Diet session
The Abe administration has decided not to submit to the upcoming Diet session a controversial bill aimed at punishing people involved in plotting serious crimes, government sources said on Wednesday. The government has so far presented bills to the Diet three times to revise the ...
