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May 19, 2024

Japan: Fuchu Prison adapting to foreign prisoners

News

Asia Foreign prisoners Material conditions Japan

“We don’t really give them special treatment just because they are foreign nationals,” said Atsushi Takada, an official at the prison. “But since the environment and culture in which they were brought up is too different from that of Japan’s, we need to treat them differently.”

February 8, 2023

Japan: Death row inmates' lawyers call for discussion on executions

News

Asia Death penalty Japan

A group of lawyers representing three people on death row in Japan criticized the secrecy shrouding the country’s executions.

December 8, 2022

Japan: Death row inmates sue over 'cruel' hanging

News

Asia Death penalty Japan

Three death row prisoners have filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government, arguing that execution by hanging is cruel and should be abolished, their lawyer said.

March 9, 2022

Japan: “It is about politics, fear and power”

Interview

Asia Access to legal rights Justice Material conditions Death penalty Japan

Death penalty is an ongoing issue despite international criticism. What is the current situation in Japan regarding the death penalty?

January 18, 2022

Japan: detention conditions of people sentenced to death

Analysis

Asia Access to legal rights Material conditions Death penalty Torture Social ties Japan

No executions were recorded in Japan in 2020, for the first time since 2011. Reportedly, more than 25% of people sentenced to death are over the age of 70 and two of them have been incarcerated for over 40 years.

December 21, 2021

Le Japon exécute des condamnés à mort, pour la première fois depuis 2019

News

Asia Justice Death penalty Japan

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

December 6, 2021

Japon : Les prisons japonaises s’adaptent au vieillissement de leurs détenus

News

Asia Elderly prisoners Activities Japan

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

November 18, 2021

Japon : des condamnés à mort poursuivent le gouvernement en justice

News

Asia Justice Death penalty Japan

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

October 10, 2019

Japan: ”her present fate is to rot in solitude”

Testimonial

Women Asia Death penalty Japan

C. Hayashi has been visiting his mother on death row for 16 years. He talks about her conditions of detention.

August 19, 2019

Japan: surveillance and old age

Interview

Asia Long-term prisoners Mental health Japan

Akaike Kazumasa is a criminologist and specialises in the Japanese prison system. Rate of imprisonment, working as a prisoner, prisoners’ age: Prison Insider asks him three questions to understand the particularities of the country’s penitentiary system.

June 6, 2019

Japan: time is money

Testimonial

Asia Japan

Geoffrey is incarcerated in Osaka prison. He describes, for Prison Insider, one working day.

April 24, 2019

Japan: "ridiculously crazy, but true!"

Testimonial

Asia Japan

“We are only allowed five letters per month.” Geoffrey is incarcerated in Osaka. He wrote to Prison Insider. Abstracts.

April 17, 2019

Japan: expensive daily products at Osaka prison prompts human rights concern from lawyers

News

Asia Material conditions Japan

Tissue paper and other daily products sold at Osaka Prison are so expensive that inmates mostly cannot purchase them, a situation amounting to a human rights violation, according to local lawyers.

February 26, 2019

Japon : ces seniors qui préfèrent la prison

News

Asia Japan

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French, Spanish

January 14, 2019

Japan: de plus en plus de japonais âgés se font arrêter pour profiter de la prison

News

Asia Japan

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

December 26, 2018

Japan: deprivation of liberty, deprivation of humanity

Testimonial

Asia Japan

Geoffrey is currently incarcerated in Osaka prison. He tells, for Prison Insider, what any day in a Japanese prison looks like.

November 27, 2018

Japan: Carlos Ghosn, déjà une semaine en prison

News

Asia Japan

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version

October 9, 2018

Japan: frozen time, frozen days

Testimonial

Asia Japan

Geoffrey is currently incarcerated in Osaka prison. He tells, for Prison Insider, what a day looks like. But not any day: weekends and holidays, when time seems to stop.

July 9, 2018

Inside Japan’s chilling death row prisons where inmates are executed with no warning after decades waiting to die

News

Asia Death penalty Japan

Seven members of a brainwashed doomsday cult were hanged last week in a sterile Japanese execution chamber for carrying out a deadly gas attack in 1995. The Asian country is one of only two first world democracies, along with the US, who kill their own citizens.

April 23, 2018

Japan: a voice coming out of isolation

Testimonial

Asia Discipline Japan

“Every day, I took many tranquillisers”. Testimonial of M. Iwazaki, imprisoned for 15 years in a prison in Chiba (Japan)

April 16, 2018

Japón: ancianos que cometen delitos para al menos tener compañía en la cárcel

News

Asia Japan

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the Spanish version.

March 22, 2018

Japan: the elderly are committing more crimes than teenagers

News

Asia Japan

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

December 19, 2017

Japon : après plus de vingt ans de prison, deux condamnés à mort ont été exécutés:

News

Asia Death penalty Violence Japan

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

June 21, 2017

Japan: new magazine offers convicts hope of escaping from a life of crime

News

Asia Japan

To prevent those with criminal convictions from committing further offenses after leaving correctional facilities, a job magazine for people with a history of crime or delinquency will be distributed at prisons and juvenile training schools nationwide starting mid-July.