Zürcher Nachrichten - Pressed to confess: Japan accused of 'hostage justice'

EUR -
AED 4.318092
AFN 80.614545
ALL 97.515981
AMD 450.104547
ANG 2.104052
AOA 1078.066333
ARS 1493.206947
AUD 1.788075
AWG 2.118513
AZN 1.986136
BAM 1.957124
BBD 2.369703
BDT 143.477078
BGN 1.960053
BHD 0.442399
BIF 3498.266973
BMD 1.175645
BND 1.503818
BOB 8.109487
BRL 6.538351
BSD 1.173594
BTN 101.577729
BWP 15.757662
BYN 3.840799
BYR 23042.650955
BZD 2.357495
CAD 1.611469
CDF 3396.439638
CHF 0.935561
CLF 0.028434
CLP 1115.474745
CNY 8.41053
CNH 8.421566
COP 4779.533894
CRC 592.901165
CUC 1.175645
CUP 31.154605
CVE 110.339657
CZK 24.545715
DJF 208.991406
DKK 7.463615
DOP 71.20818
DZD 152.284037
EGP 57.700139
ERN 17.634682
ETB 163.326609
FJD 2.636679
FKP 0.874612
GBP 0.875932
GEL 3.185765
GGP 0.874612
GHS 12.264298
GIP 0.874612
GMD 84.646522
GNF 10184.891229
GTQ 9.008095
GYD 245.54614
HKD 9.227694
HNL 30.731794
HRK 7.543879
HTG 154.014208
HUF 396.392333
IDR 19233.324546
ILS 3.942883
IMP 0.874612
INR 101.700736
IQD 1537.440252
IRR 49509.370331
ISK 142.394757
JEP 0.874612
JMD 187.206666
JOD 0.833522
JPY 173.654488
KES 151.632597
KGS 102.626557
KHR 4701.18088
KMF 492.005188
KPW 1058.080912
KRW 1626.311529
KWD 0.35896
KYD 0.978062
KZT 639.532716
LAK 25300.118387
LBP 105157.350821
LKR 354.109595
LRD 235.309213
LSL 20.829694
LTL 3.471375
LVL 0.711137
LYD 6.335287
MAD 10.553941
MDL 19.740357
MGA 5183.507228
MKD 61.60168
MMK 2468.188804
MNT 4217.93586
MOP 9.48902
MRU 46.839692
MUR 53.38599
MVR 18.108038
MWK 2035.076959
MXN 21.809693
MYR 4.96299
MZN 75.194241
NAD 20.829694
NGN 1801.006804
NIO 43.189222
NOK 11.914463
NPR 162.523966
NZD 1.954864
OMR 0.452196
PAB 1.173594
PEN 4.156813
PGK 4.864291
PHP 67.188538
PKR 332.577826
PLN 4.246279
PYG 8790.948069
QAR 4.278095
RON 5.081651
RSD 117.229319
RUB 93.021947
RWF 1696.447839
SAR 4.410912
SBD 9.740334
SCR 16.632254
SDG 705.974301
SEK 11.191528
SGD 1.50646
SHP 0.923873
SLE 26.980577
SLL 24652.702048
SOS 670.753841
SRD 43.103279
STD 24333.487339
STN 24.516588
SVC 10.268948
SYP 15285.493745
SZL 20.822088
THB 38.055253
TJS 11.208184
TMT 4.126516
TND 3.426318
TOP 2.753485
TRY 47.667285
TTD 7.9804
TWD 34.661315
TZS 3007.434869
UAH 49.072503
UGX 4207.847084
USD 1.175645
UYU 47.011809
UZS 14850.047734
VES 141.39888
VND 30737.25047
VUV 139.429097
WST 3.220079
XAF 656.401129
XAG 0.030803
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.177241
XCG 2.115131
XDR 0.816352
XOF 656.401129
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.271671
ZAR 20.854687
ZMK 10582.216705
ZMW 27.374522
ZWL 378.557357
  • RBGPF

    -1.1200

    73.88

    -1.52%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    10.58

    +0.66%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    24.2

    -0.95%

  • NGG

    -0.0800

    72.15

    -0.11%

  • GSK

    -0.2600

    37.97

    -0.68%

  • RIO

    -0.7300

    63.1

    -1.16%

  • BCC

    1.7100

    88.14

    +1.94%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    13.2

    -0.3%

  • RELX

    -0.9800

    52.73

    -1.86%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • BTI

    -0.3700

    52.25

    -0.71%

  • CMSC

    0.0550

    22.485

    +0.24%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    22.89

    +0.17%

  • JRI

    -0.0600

    13.09

    -0.46%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    11.43

    -0.79%

  • BP

    0.0700

    32.2

    +0.22%

  • AZN

    -1.0200

    72.66

    -1.4%

Pressed to confess: Japan accused of 'hostage justice'
Pressed to confess: Japan accused of 'hostage justice' / Photo: Philip FONG - AFP

Pressed to confess: Japan accused of 'hostage justice'

Yo Amano says he is unravelling in a cell where he has been confined alone almost 24 hours a day for over six years, despite not having been convicted of the fraud charges against him.

Text size:

In Japan's harsh criminal justice system, critics say innocence is not presumed and coerced confessions help drive the 99 percent conviction rate.

"From the moment I was arrested, I've been treated like I'm a prisoner," Amano, 36, told AFP through a glass screen at the Tokyo Detention Centre, where he is held alongside people convicted of violent crimes, including death-row inmates.

"I'm sure something is wrong with me mentally, but I can't tell for sure because I can't even get a decent medical diagnosis here," he said.

Campaigners argue that lengthy pre-trial detention is meted out too easily in Japan, especially if suspects remain silent or refuse to confess.

That often makes confessions a de-facto condition for their release, one that rights groups say exists in few other liberal democracies.

This alleged use of confinement as a way to elicit confessions -- or "hostage justice" -- is under renewed scrutiny after a group of victims recently filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

Lawyer Takashi Takano, who spearheads the suit, slammed the "completely inverted chronology".

In Japan, "if you contest your charges, your bail is denied and detention drags on. You get punished and robbed of everything first, sometimes before the trial even begins, followed finally by a verdict," he told AFP.

AFP obtained rare, court-issued approval to speak to Amano, who denies the charges against him.

Since his 2018 arrest, he has been locked up incommunicado, having "lost everything", including his job, partner and mental health.

In summer, what little coolness there is in the detention facility filters through a small food slot into Amano's sweltering cell.

Three tatami mats fill the floor space, and there is no air conditioning.

For most of the day, Amano is not allowed to lie down or lean against a wall, so he spends hours sitting on a mat.

The former restaurant owner says he has lost 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds) since his arrest.

He can only contact his lawyers and is denied access to anyone else, including family,barring rare exceptions.

This has left him estranged from the "daughter I doted on", now seven years old, and whom he last saw in 2019.

"I don't know if she still remembers me."

- 'Extracting confessions' -

"Hostage justice" -- a term popularised by ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn's months-long, 2018-2019 detention -- has been repeatedly decried by international rights bodies.

The latest lawsuit challenges judges' ability to "rubber-stamp" detentions, and to reject bail without demonstrating "probable cause" that evidence will be destroyed, according to lawyer Takano.

In Japan, pre-indictment detention can last up to 23 days, extendable by multiple rearrests.

Only after indictment does bail become possible, but as with Amano, the option is often dismissed if the accused denies the charges, campaigners say.

Judicial data from 2021 shows that those who confessed were released much more quickly than those who denied the charges.

"In Japan, refusing to confess or remaining silent is seen as high-risk behaviour of someone likely to destroy evidence," Kana Sasakura, a criminal law professor at Konan University, told AFP.

Furthermore, detainees are typically interrogated without attorneys -- a stark contrast to most Group of Seven and East Asian democracies -- which makes it harder to withstand the pressure of questioning.

This, coupled with gruelling confinement, attests to Japan's overall reliance on confessions, Sasakura noted.

"It's a structure where, by conducting interrogations behind closed doors and isolating the suspect from the outside world, extracting confessions is made easier," she said.

- 'Fair' system -

The justice ministry told AFP that "prolonged detention solely on the grounds of remaining silent or denying charges isn't occurring".

"We don't use physical detention to force confessions," it added, defending Japan's "fair" and "evidence-based" system.

But Tomoya Asanuma, another plaintiff in the suit, recalls almost cracking under the strain.

Last year, the 36-year-old transgender activist endured almost four months of detention for charges including assault that he was ultimately acquitted of in January.

"Detectives would tell me, 'confess already, and we don't have to interrogate you so many times,'" Asanuma told AFP of the frequent, hours-long questioning.

Life under constant surveillance, including when he bathed or relieved himself, was a source of extra humiliation as his body still retained biologically female characteristics

"The thought repeatedly crossed my mind that if I falsely confessed, I can maybe escape all this," he said.

- 'Won't betray their trust' -

And therein lies the secret to Japan's astonishing 99-percent conviction rate, lawyer Takano argues.

"After such endless interrogations, most people break and confess," leading to statements adopted by courts as evidence, he said.

A case in point is Iwao Hakamada, who was once the world's longest-serving death-row inmate. His convictions -- quashed last year -- relied partly on confessions made during what the Supreme Court ruled were "inhumane" interrogations.

"That's what undergirds the '99-percent' conviction rate. But do you really trust such guilty verdicts?" Takano said.

In his cell with an exposed toilet, Amano languishes with little sense of the time or weather outside.

The light remains on after bedtime, but he is not allowed to cover his face with bedding.

But still he will not confess.

"If I succumb now and choose an easy way out, I would disappoint people who still support me," he said.

"I won't betray their trust."

L.Muratori--NZN