HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE JAPANESE PENAL SYSTEM IN PRISON FACILITIES

Abstract

Japan is the safest country in the industrialised world. For example, in 2021, Brazil’s homicide rate (the number of murders per 100,000 population) was 22.38 and that of Japan was 0.23, which means that homicides in Japan are only about one hundredth of those in Brazil. Japan’s prisons hold about half of their capacity, with regular daily life, work and vocational training, and there are close to zero riots or escapes in prisons every year. Although it is sometimes criticised that there is little freedom in prison, there can be no better guarantee of human rights than safety. The reasons for such low crime and prison discipline are (1) Japan’s remarkable economic development since the 1960s, with little disparity between rich and poor; (2) for most Japanese, social reputation is more important than law and punishment; and (3) the ‘discipline’ that Japanese people acquire through education from an early age (3) the ‘discipline and correctness’ that Japanese people are taught and acquire from an early age is maintained both within society and in prisons.