Flying Pink Unicorns

Injustice in Japan.

In its March 15, 2008 print issue, the Economist wrote about Japan's criminal justice system. For those not in the know, Japan works very differently than the west in the criminal justice arena. Criminal defendants are generally expected to confess, and most do so. The conviction rate is "over 99%." "Investigations" often take years.

Recently, there was a case of alleged vote-buying which collapsed where it became "plain that the police had fabricated the evidence -- though not before one defendant had died and another been subjected to over 700 hours of interrogation and 400 days in detention."

700 hours of interrogation. Stop and think about that. That's 24 full days of interrogation. Or, assuming 10 hours for sleep and other activities per day, 50 full calendar days of interrogation. That's completely insane.

Heaven knows the US has enormous injustices in our criminal prosecutions. But sometimes you read something from an allegedly civilized country that just jumps off the page at you. This is a screaming injustice of the very first order. In fact, I wonder if a case could be made (literally and figuratively) that at some point this interrogation crossed over into torture. 50 days of interrogation (with 8 hours of sleep and 2 miscellaneous hours per day). 50 days. I just can't get past that. Japan should be ashamed of itself, and fix, root to branch, a system which allows this awful result. And the individuals involved in the ultra-marathon of interrogation should at the very least be fired.