Conditions of public order 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 ...
compare favorably with those in other
industrialized
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...
countries. The overall
crime rate is low by North American and West European standards and has shown a general decline since the mid-1960s. The incidence of
violent crime is especially low, due mainly to pervasive social pressure and conditioning to obey the law. Problems of particular concern are those associated with a modern industrialized nation, including
juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...
,
traffic control, and
white-collar crime.
Post World War II
Civil disorder
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...
s occurred beginning in the early 1950s, chiefly in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, but did not seriously threaten the
internal security of the
state. Far less frequent after the early 1970s, they were in all cases effectively countered by
Riot Police Unit
are the rapid reaction forces of Japanese prefectural police. These units are not only riot police, but a type of emergency service unit to maintain public order against large civil disorder, disaster response, or other emergency situations as ...
, efficient and well-trained police units employing the most sophisticated techniques of
riot control.
Police
Japan's police are an apolitical body under the general supervision of independent agencies, free of direct central government executive control (''cf.''
National Police Agency). They are checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press. The police are generally well respected and can rely on considerable public cooperation in their work. While police are well-trained, they generally have little practical experience outside of writing tickets or answering an occasional domestic dispute.
Legal process of arrest
When a person is suspected of a crime, the police can hold him or her for up to three days before initiating an investigation. The police must obtain approval from the prosecutor's office for a ten-day investigation. If, after ten days, the police are not satisfied with the investigation, they may request an additional ten days from the prosecutor and a judge. These requests are rarely denied. Bail is rarely granted during this time, and only during extreme mitigating circumstances, as when a child or elder relative depends on the suspect for daily care. After the second ten-day period, the prosecutor must bring an
indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...
against the suspect or release him. Anybody can be arrested, and held for up to 23 days before being charged with a crime.
When a suspect is arrested, he is informed of two rights, analogous to
Miranda rights
In the United States, the ''Miranda'' warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection fr ...
. The first is the right to remain silent. The second is the right to have an attorney at the trial. The suspect does ''not'' have the right to see an attorney before trial or have one present during interrogation sessions. If a suspect can not afford an attorney, one will be appointed for him (The Constitution of Japan, Section 37-3).
Prosecutors in Japan do not generally go to trial unless they have overwhelming evidence of guilt. Because of this tendency, they decline to prosecute nearly a quarter of all cases. For those that go to trial, Japanese prosecutors hold a conviction record of about 98%. These patterns contribute to public perceptions of the infallibility of the police and the legal system, and the perception that if a person is arrested, he or she must be guilty of the crime.
Penal system
Officials involved in the
criminal justice system are usually highly trained professionals interested in preventing crime and rehabilitating offenders. They are allowed considerable discretion in dealing with legal infractions and appear to deserve the trust and respect accorded to them by the general public. Constitutionally guaranteed rights of
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
, protection against
self-incrimination
In criminal law, self-incrimination is the act of exposing oneself generally, by making a statement, "to an accusation or charge of crime; to involve oneself or another ersonin a criminal prosecution or the danger thereof". (Self-incrimination ...
, and the inadmissibility of confessions obtained under duress are enforced by criminal procedures.
The
prison system is generally modern and conducted from the viewpoint of
resocialization
Resocialization or resocialisation (British English) is the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are re-engineered. The process is deliberately carried out in -parent households and military boot camps through an intens ...
. Prisoners are treated on an individualized basis, and education is emphasized. Special attention is given to juvenile offenders, who are normally housed separately from adult prisoners. A well-organized{{Citation needed, date=January 2008 parole and probation program employs numerous
citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
volunteers.
See also
*
National security of Japan
The Government of Japan has been making various efforts on its security policy which include: the establishment of the National Security Council (NSC), the adoption of the National Security Strategy (NSS), and the National Defense Program Guideli ...
*
Judicial system of Japan
References
*''This article includes text from the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
"Country Studies" a
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/''
Law enforcement in Japan