Tag - japanese-prisons

 
Menu
Search
 
November 05, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

JAPANESE PRISONS

The mother of a deceased male inmate of a juvenile detention facility who filed a lawsuit over the medical treatment he had received while detained speaks during a news conference in Tokyo Thursday following a ruling ordering the state to pay damages.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2025
Tokyo court orders state to pay damages following inmate’s death
The dispute centered on whether a medical exam conducted in January 2020 at the juvenile detention branch had been appropriate given the man was later diagnosed with cancer.
The Tokyo District Court building. The court ordered the government to pay damages over verbal abuse by prison guards against an inmate at Nagoya Prison.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 20, 2025
Government ordered to pay damages for verbal abuse of inmate
The ruling came after the bereaved family of the inmate sued the government for some ¥40 million, accusing it of failing to offer proper medical treatment to him.
A security officer stands guard at an entrance gate to the Ministry of Justice in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 20, 2025
Japan requires prison officers to display ID numbers on uniforms
Officers are required to display their numbers above the rank badges on the right chest of their uniforms so that inmates can identify them.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jun 5, 2025
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Prison labor is no longer mandatory, which allows more time for educational and rehabilitative programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
Former inmates work as trainees in the forestry industry in Nara Prefecture under the prefecture's fully funded rehabilitation program.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2025
Nara initiative offers second chances to former prison inmates
Since 2020, nine people have participated in a first-of-its-kind reintegration program, with job training, housing and life skills classes.
Along with running a commissary located outside a prison, Shinji Kaneko (Ryuhei Maruyama) carries out requests on behalf of detainees and their families in “Kaneko’s Commissary.”
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2025
‘Kaneko's Commissary’ explores prison culture from the outside in
First-time director Go Furukawa’s heartfelt film stands out from the genre crowd for its informed examination of how the prison complex operates.
With the June 1 reform of imprisonment penalties, Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 5, 2025
Japanese prisons prepare for imprisonment penalty reform
Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses.
Death row inmate Chisako Kakehi, who was convicted of murdering three elderly men between 2012 and 2013 with the intent of inheriting their assets, has died, local media reported Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 26, 2024
Chisako Kakehi, sentenced to death for cyanide murders, dies in custody
The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering three men — her husband and two common-law spouses — to inherit their assets.
Kozo Iizuka (center) takes part in an investigation of the site of an April 2019 car crash in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district that he was involved in, in June the same year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 25, 2024
93-year-old inmate imprisoned over fatal Tokyo car crash dies
Kozo Iizuka died while serving a five-year term for negligent driving that caused the deaths of a woman and her young daughter in Ikebukuro in April 2019.
Since inmates with mental disabilities often repeat similar offenses after a short period of time — partly due to a lack of necessary support — increased help from staffers with specialized knowledge is becoming crucial.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 18, 2024
Ministry ramps up support for prisoners with mental disabilities in Japan
One of the main targets is to reduce the recidivism rate, which tends to be higher for prisoners with mental and developmental disabilities.
Hyogo Prefectural Police investigators call on people at a station in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, on Oct. 16 to provide information related to the 2007 murder of a girl in the city.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2024
Inmate hints at involvement in murder of another girl in western Japan
Hyogo Prefectural Police plan to arrest the man soon on suspicion of attempted murder in another case.
Experts of a Justice Ministry panel hold a meeting in Tokyo in June to discuss revision of the probation officer system.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 16, 2024
Justice Ministry to consider public recruitment of volunteer probation officers
The officers regularly meet with individuals released from prison, including those on parole, offering guidance on life and employment support.
Japan's new justice minister Hideki Makihara says abolishing the death penalty would be "inappropriate."
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 3, 2024
New justice minister says scrapping death penalty 'inappropriate'
Capital punishment has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.
Therapy dogs are brought in for correctional education at the Kakogawa Gakuen juvenile correctional facility in Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Sep 3, 2024
Novel dog training program aids rehab at juvenile correctional facility
An official involved in the program highlighted its importance, saying, 'Interaction with animals plays a valuable role in the rehabilitation of juveniles.'
Tsutomu Shirosaki, former member of the Japanese Red Army
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2024
Ex-Japan Red Army prisoner, 76, chokes on food and dies
Tsutomu Shirosaki was serving time for his involvement in the 1986 terrorist attack on the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta.
A new rule of having prison officers use honorifics when addressing inmates sparked apprehension when it was introduced in April. Three months later, a prison officer said the rule helps avoid situations where older inmates might not feel comfortable being called by their names without honorifics by officers fresh out of school.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2024
Prison officers and inmates warm up to rule on use of honorifics
Since April, a new rule requires prison officers to use the honorifics san and kun when addressing inmates by their last names.
Michael Taylor, former U.S. Green Beret and architect of the 2019 Carlos Ghosn escape plot, said that other inmates deported from Fuchu Prison to a detention center in Los Angeles were so traumatized that they ended up with psychological problems.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2024
Man who sprung Ghosn challenges depiction of Fuchu Prison
Michael Taylor, who served part of his sentence at the facility, said he felt the depiction had missed key elements of the "Fuchu experience."
From the outside, the light-brown complex that is Fuchu Prison in western Tokyo could easily be mistaken for a city hall.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 19, 2024
Fuchu Prison adapting to foreign prisoners
The penitentiary houses the biggest population of foreign prisoners in Japan, and as such is taking measures to accommodate them in terms of language, culture, food and lifestyle.
Takuya Matsunaga reads a reply from Kozo Iizuka, imprisoned for killing Matsunaga's wife and daughter in 2019 in a high-profile accident in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, at his home in Tokyo earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 19, 2024
Five years after fatal Ikebukuro crash, bereaved man works to prevent repeat
A man plans to meet with the driver who accidentally killed his wife and young daughter, hoping to learn what went through the driver's mind.
A prison officer looks around Tokushima prison in Tokushima in March 2018. The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that male prisoners in Japan are to be allowed to have certain skin care products.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 24, 2024
Japan to allow male prisoners to use same skin care items as women
Under previous rules, the in-prison purchase and gift acceptance of the toiletry items were allowed only for female inmates.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
A narrow Pacific waterway at heart of U.S. plans to choke China’s vast navy
Philippine and Australian troops fire an M777 howitzer during live fire exercises as part of joint military drills in Laur, Nueva Ecija, the Philippines, in August.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Young Indonesians in Japan find their political voice
Indonesian students at Hiroshima University hold posters of the 17+8 Demands, demanding transparency and action from their homeland’s government.
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
Kenshi Yonezu, 'Chainsaw Man' and the art of pop ubiquity
Kenshi Yonezu's “Iris Out” was an instant hit when it dropped in September. Its association with smash anime "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" has spread it to even more people.
How airlines are refining their in-flight food in Japan's tourism boom
All Nippon Airways' gourmet program, The Connoisseurs, showcases the Japanese concept of "shun" (peak season for ingredients), giving passengers a preview of the refined cuisine that awaits them in Japan.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER