www.debito.org
Arrest and Detention Periods of Criminal Suspects
Under Japanese Law
(originally made public Sept 18, 2002, revised December 19, 2002 and April 9, 2003)
(Japanese 日本語)

(page directly down to the phone numbers to lodge a complaint against police treatment)
(Page down to JAPAN TIMES articles (March-April 2003) on CONDITIONS IN JAPANESE PRISONS, warranting Ministry of Justice inquiries on deaths during incarceration.)

I received the following information and handouts from the Hokkaido Police Headquarters, as part of preparation for police interrogation translation work before the World Cup games in Sapporo, May 2002.

English translation of the time periods below is followed by the original Japanese.

Note that there is no 24-hour period of Habeas Corpus. You can legally be denied legal counsel and Consular assistance (as well as contact with the outside world and the mass media) for 48 hours. After that, your detention is made public, but you may be turned over to the Public Prosecutor for another day of questioning. Then afterwards he may ask a judge for another ten days, renewable again once, of detention--usually granted except under unusual circumstances (which your lawyer will have to make clear to the court).

In other words, once you can contact the outside world, contact your embassy or consulate and get a lawyer as soon as possible. Otherwise the judge will probably order your further detention for more than three weeks.

Don't be a hero and go this alone. Twenty-three days is plenty of time to have your consciousness altered and a confession signed (Most people unsurprisingly confess, with the consequent conviction rate close to 100%. Meaning if you sign, you will probably go to jail.) You will be out of your element in terms of sleep and creature comforts, especially since, according to a friend of a friend who was arrested, you are only allowed three days' of clothes and supplies at a time. The US State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan (Feb 23, 2001) also notes "credible reports that police and prison officials physically and psychologically abused prisoners and detainees". There have also been deaths in custody. More information about what happens in custody from somebody who experienced it in the following report:

ちなみに、大事な電話番号：
生活安全相談センター（民事、刑事、防犯等の相談）
03 3503-8484

広報課 広聴係（警察についてのクレーム・苦情・改善要請など）
03-3581-4321

北海道警察本部相談センター
011-241-9110

ENDS

FEEDBACK AND ADVICE FROM CYBERSPACE:

(From Fox. My assertions in bold italics, Fox's amendments in plain text)

1) "but you may be turned over to the Public Prosecutor for another day
of questioning."

No, not "may be", your case must be turned over to a prosecutor, or you
must be released. The prosecutor decides if there is a case against you,
whether to set bail, or to detain you for furhter questioning. Thus, a
person may be arrested and incarcerated for 72 hours without being
indicted. If the police want to hold you for further questions, or even
punitive reasons, i.e., marching in a demonstration protesting the
tenno-sei, they can easily do so for twenty more days with the consent
of a judge, consent which is rarely refused.

2) "In other words, once you can contact the outside world, contact your
embassy or consulate and get a lawyer as soon as possible. Otherwise the
judge will probably order your further detention for more than three
weeks."

This doesn't make any sense. Whether you contact your embassy or not
will not have any bearing on what the judge (in reality what the police
and prosecutor working in tandem) might do.

///////////////////////

"Don't be a hero and go this alone. Twenty-three days is plenty of time
to have your consciousness altered and a confession signed."

Excellent advice.

"However, nothing is said below about the informal ("voluntary", or
"nin'i") detention periods used when police informally question
subjects. The police often do not make this clear when carrying out
their questioning, so you must ask."

Good point, could you please make a link to the Rosal Case, the filipina
who was held illegally and interrogated without counsel for eight days,
driven to false confession, and wrongfully convicted of murder.

website: www2.gol.com/users/rosal/eng/index.html

Perhaps you could also make some links to my articles on the
Higashi-Sumiyoshi Case, an example of coercions which have been beaten
out people:

www.japanfile.com/culture_and_society/social_issues/higashi.shtml

You can also read about the relationship between police interrogations
and the death penalty.

www.japanfile.com/culture_and_society/social_issues/death_penalty.shtml

CONDITIONS IN JAPANESE PRISONS
Deaths and abuses of power, FYI.

Although things like these can (and do) occur in prisons all over the world, for the record, this is to make sure you are aware that Japan is not immune. And abuses have occurred to a degree where even the Ministry of Justice has begun pushes for reform and greater accountability. Be advised. And stay out of a Japanese prison.

68 prison deaths warranted autopsy in decade
THE JAPAN TIMES: March 27, 2003
(Courtesy http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030327a5.htm)

Of the 1,592 deaths in Japanese prisons and detention houses in the 10 years to 2002, only 68 required autopsies because of questions over the circumstances of death, according to a Justice Ministry official.

The number of postmortem examinations prior to an autopsy being carried out was 484 during the same period, Kenji Nakai, head of the Justice Ministry's Correction Bureau, told the House of Representatives committee on judicial affairs Tuesday.

The 68 autopsies, included in the total number of postmortem examinations, were conducted to pinpoint the cause of death, Nakai added.

Investigative authorities conduct postmortem exams on the bodies of people whose deaths are deemed suspicious, connected either to crimes or accidents.

Opposition party members on the committee used death records obtained from the ministry to claim that the number of deaths among prisoners was excessive. They argued that some of the deaths were a result of the ministry failing to provide adequate medical treatment.

Nakai admitted that correctional facilities lacked medical preparedness, saying "Our response was late."

Whenever a convict dies or commits suicide, coroners or witnesses must detail the results of the postmortem examination, together with their names and titles.

Each prison keeps death records, in line with the Prison Law. The records are preserved for 10 years.

Warden admonished

NAGOYA (Kyodo) The warden of Nagoya Prison was admonished Wednesday for his subordinates' alleged fatal assault of an inmate with a high-pressure fire hose in 2001, and was warned to prevent further abuses.

Kazuhiro Umetsu, director of the Nagoya Legal Affairs Bureau, admonished Atsushi Nakayama in the second such action meted out to him over a series of fatal assaults on inmates that took place at the prison over the past few years.

Through a joint investigation with the Justice Ministry's Civil Liberties Bureau, the Nagoya Legal Affairs Bureau determined that the assault rivaled other fatal assaults at the prison involving restraining devices.

The bureau determined that guards involved in the assaults lack respect for inmates' human rights and that the incidents have exposed structural problems in the directorship and supervision of the prison.

In admonishing Nakayama, Umetsu demanded that he educate the guards under his command on the need to respect inmates' rights and build a structure ensuring their rights are protected.

Nakayama was admonished in January for his subordinates' involvement in the death of an inmate in May 2002 and severe injuries to another in September the same year, both involving leather manacles and body belts that were too tightly cinched.

The inmate killing for which the admonition was issued Wednesday took place in December 2001, when two guards allegedly helped another guard aim water from a high-pressure fire hose at the inmate's bare buttocks as punishment.

The 43-year-old inmate suffered serious injuries to his rectum and anus, and died of an infection the next afternoon, prosecutors said.

The guards were later indicted in connection with the assault.

A total of eight prison guards have been charged in connection with assaults on inmates at the prison.

The Japan Times: March 27, 2003 (C) All rights reserved