is a prison in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is located in the city of the

Fuchū, Tokyo 260px, Fuchū City Hall is a city located in western Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Fuchū serves as a regional commercial center and a commuter town for workers in central Tokyo. The city hosts large scale manufacturing facilities for Toshiba, NEC a ...

to the west of the center of

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Before the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Fuchū prison held Communist leaders, members of banned religious sects, and leaders of the

Korean independence movement The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which ...

. Fuchū Prison was opened in June 1935 after the need for a new and larger prison was determined by the

Home Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

in a review following the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

, during which Tokyo's main prison,

Sugamo Prison Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was originally built in 1 ...

, was destroyed. During the pre-war period, the prison also housed many

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s as well as common criminals. After the war, the prison was visited by Harold Isaacs of ''

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'', French correspondent

Robert Guillain Robert Guillain (4 September 1908 – 29 December 1998) was a French journalist who spent most of his career in Asia at times of momentous events, such as the Pacific War. He wrote several books on Asia, especially Japan. Guillain was considered b ...

, John K. Emmerson, E. Herbert Norman and ''

Domei Domei is the name of: * Dōmei Tsushin, former news agency in the Empire of Japan * Japanese Confederation of Labour The Japanese Confederation of Labour (Domei; ja, 全日本労働総同盟) was a national trade union federation in Japan. The ...

'' reporter Tay Tateishi. The 1968 “

300 million yen robbery , also known as the 300 million yen affair or incident, was a robbery that occurred on December 10, 1968 in Tokyo, Japan. A man posing as a police officer on a motorcycle stopped bank employees transferring money and stole 294 million yen. It is ...

” took place outside of the walls of the prison. The prison facilities were renovated over a ten-year period from 1986 to 1995. As of December 2015, Fuchū Prison was the largest prison in Japan, housing 2086 prisoners. The prison covers an area of 22.6ha, and is surrounded by a 1.8km wall with a height of 5.5m, The cells are divided into four blocks (ordinary prisoners, foreign prisoners, mentally ill prisoners, and physically disabled or injured prisoners). Male foreign prisoners in Japan are generally housed at Fuchū Prison. The prison also contains numerous workshops for vocational training. Foreigners are incarcerated for various crimes but all in single cells in two or three blocks.

Notable inmates

Tokuda Kyuichi was a Japanese politician and first chairman of the Japanese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1953. Biography Kyuichi Tokuda was born in 1894 in Okinawa and became a lawyer following graduation from Nihon University in 1920. He joi ...

Yoshio Shiga was an officer, ace fighter pilot, and leader in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific theater of World War II. At the December 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, Shiga led one of the aircraft carrier ...

Kim Chon-hae Kim Chon-hae (, Japanese reading: ''Kin Tenkai''; 10 May 1898, Ulsan-gun, South Gyeongsang – 1969?) was a Zainichi Korean who was a leading figure in the Japanese Communist Party and a founder of the pro- communist League of Koreans in Ja ...

* George Abe - Japanese author and former yakuza *

Richard Hinds Richard Paul Hinds (born 22 August 1980 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire) is an English footballer who most recently played as a defender for Llandudno in the Welsh Premier League. He is now a primary school teacher. Playing career Hinds starte ...

- American murdererhttps://www.pressreader.com/ireland/wexford-people/20180123/282132111866022 *

Kenichi Shinoda , also known as , is a Japanese Yakuza, the sixth and current ''kumicho'' (supreme kingpin, or chairman) of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. Career Shinoda was born in Ōita, Kyushu.Yoshie Shiratori was a Japanese national born in Aomori Prefecture. Shiratori is famous for having escaped from prison four different times, making him an anti-hero in Japanese culture. There is a memorial to Shiratori at the Abashiri Prison Museum. There ar ...

References

External links

* * * * * Prisons in Japan Fuchū, Tokyo Buildings and structures in Tokyo 1935 establishments in Japan {{Japan-struct-stub

Notable inmates

See also

References

Further reading

External links