Doing Time

Japan is an island of 127 million people. It has the lowest crime rate out of any industrialized country in the world. Yes, crime does happen here but it’s probably the safest country you could possibly be in. I feel safer here than I do back home, without a doubt. With that in mind let’s talk about the prison system in the safest country in the world. The prison population in Japan is about 70,000; in the state it’s over two million. As we approach the gate it’s hard to believe that this building is a prison. It looks like most government buildings in Japan; sterile, boring and stale but with barbed wire. We are escorted to a room that bares a massive Japanese flag. We are told that the warden is heading are way where he will talk about the prison, then we will watch a short film, take a tour and then come back to the room for a question and answer segment.

 The warden looks like a warden; stiff, serious and by the book. This prison holds 706 male prisoners but is past its capacity. The youngest is 24 and the oldest is 85. Most of the prisoners are first time offenders and crimes range from theft (the most common crime committed in Japan), sexual crimes and murder, all them live together no matter how serious or minor the crime. First of all to get to prison doesn’t seem easy. The justice system seems to give you numerous chances before actually locking you away; obviously the nature of the crime is a factor. In Japan, they don’t hand out lengthy sentences. Most sentences range from 8 to 11 years, no matter what the crime is, and life sentences are rarely handed out (only three were handed out last year). I’ll talk about the death penalty later. So a thief, rapist and a murderer could relatively serve the same amount of time. The prison system is structured to resocialize, rehabilitate and reform the prisoners. But the fact of the matter is, life in a Japanese prison is not good. I remember one of my peers saying that he felt safer in Japan than his own country but he would rather go to prison at home rather than Japan. At the time I didn’t really think about it but after this visit I began to understand why.

 After being sentenced they are separated by gender and sometimes by the severity of their crimes and placed in certain prisons to meet their individual needs. Upon arriving, the resocialization, reeducation and reform process start right away. You have to take an aptitude test so that can place you into the right job, which is what you spend most of your sentence doing, working. You meet with a counselor and discuss the nature of your crime, showing that you fully understand what you did and that you are remorseful. If you display neither, you are immediately sent to solitary confinement, which as you can imagine is a small room in the depths of hell with no window, filled with bugs and a dingy mattress. From 7:30 a.m. till 5:30 they have you sit Japanese style on the cold cement. You are not allowed to move and are only given a bathroom break when the guard sees it necessary. You stay there until you can demonstrate to the proper officials that you recognize your crime and are committed and open to your rehabilitation.

 It seems like prisons in Japan are like labor camps. You wake up at 7 a.m., eat breakfast in your cell and head to work. You wear a prison uniform that eerily resembles the garb concentration camp prisoners wore. On your way to work, you stop in a room and strip down in front of the guards and change into your work uniform, which is a light melon green color. You work all day every day, whether it is in the factory, the classroom or with a counselor, with a lunch break and then return back to your cell. You have to pass through the room again and change back into your prison uniform, walking past the guards naked to make sure you aren’t hiding any weapons. You eat dinner in your cell and have a little free time to read or watch TV and then it’s lights out at 9 p.m. After this time you are not allowed to talk to your cellmates. Guards patrol the halls of the cells all night long and anyone caught talking will be sent to solitary confinement. The cells are small and house seven prisoners. There are single cells but are set aside for people with special circumstances i.e. they are a danger to others.  The cells do not have air conditioning or heat, no matter if the prison is located in the North where it reaches below zero temperatures all winter or in the South where the summer heat and humidity is unbearable.

 The cost of keeping someone incarcerated in the United States is about $40,000-50,000 a year but in Japan they try to make it as cheap as possible so that taxpayers aren’t stuck with a huge tab. The warden couldn’t give us an exact amount but said it cost about $4 a day to feed a prisoner and they use the cheapest products available so the cost is lower compared to the U.S. The prisoners are paid 2,000-3,000 yen a month for their labor, which is $20-30 American dollars. The work they do in prison is not like in the states where they make license plates. It’s more like weaving, sewing and woodworking. It’s extremely intricate, time consuming and painstakingly detailed. They are not allowed to bring in personal items from home when they arrive, everything is provided by the state. They are allowed to purchase 3 magazines or books per month ad there is no underground black market trading system. Cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are not a part of prison life, seriously though they are not.  As far as visitors are concerned, you are only allowed 3 visits a month by immediate family members only, no friends, for 15 minutes. If you don’t have a family then you are not allowed any visitors. There is limited contact with your visitors so conjugal visits are not allowed. You are allowed to attend religious ceremonies, Buddhist and Christian priests visit the prison weekly. They have sporting events, like baseball and have entertainment nights where they can sing karaoke. They are allowed to observe and participate in national holidays.

 In the summer they get to take three 15-minute baths a week and in the winter they get two. The shower/bath house fits 90 prisoners at a time and is obviously patrolled by guards. What I find interesting about the guards is they don’t carry weapons, nothing not a gun, a billy club or even pepper spray. While there are at work there is one guard per one hundred prisoners. This was shocking to me. This would never happen in the states, if it did there would be serious consequences like riots and murders. Last year at this prison in particular they was never an attack on a guard by an inmate. There is violence amongst the prisoners but it’s rare because no one wants to go to solitary confinement. For the most part, homemade weapons are rare and their cells are checked everyday. The warden did not mention this but Japanese prisons are somewhat known for abusing and/or torturing their inmates when they violate prison rules. Japan has been cited by Amnesty International for their abuse of inmates but who knows how effective the citation has been.

 When we walk through the different factory type rooms the guards yell at the inmates to not look at us as we pass through. Of course they do though after all we are foreigners. It felt weird to pass by these men knowing that some of them had committed rape and murder. I made eye contact with a few of them. Some of them had sad eyes and others were evil. We passed through four rooms filled with prisoners and I couldn’t limp fast enough. We saw all aspects of prison life but I couldn’t help wonder how hard they had prepared for our visit to make sure everything was exactly as it seemed.

 The question and answer section was totally controlled by the warden and he had a good way of dodging questions or just straight up lying. Of course we didn’t know this till later because he didn’t speak English and our professor was doing the translating. As soon as we got back on the bus our professor informed us of the wardens brilliant ways of getting out of answering questions completely, at all or truthfully. Of course he is not going to make Japanese prisons look bad to a group of foreigners. So a lot of what he left out our professor filled in the missing pieces.  An example is homosexual activity. Someone asked if it happened and the warden answered with a stern “No” because it was forbidden and prisoners don’t break the rules.  Now it may not be like it is in the states, with the joke about not dropping the soap in the shower, or becoming someone’s “bitch” but does he really expect us to believe that it never happens? Seven men to a cell and no homosexual activity takes place, at all? But he was adamant and quickly moved on to the next question.

 The objective of making prison life miserable is to ensure a low rate of repeat offenders. Most people who commit a crime in Japan and serve a sentence don’t often reoffend because they know that prison is no holiday. This may contribute to low crime rates in Japan but another reason is shame. The family structure in Japan is extremely important and sacred and when you go to jail you bring shame to your family and its name. This may not be an ideal we can relate to but it’s extremely important to Japanese people. Another reason why crime is so low is because Japanese people do not bear arms. I am not saying that no one has a gun in Japan but it’s pretty rare. After their defeat in WWII, the allied occupation disarmed Japan and they haven’t, as a society, embraced arms again. Of course you have your exceptions, like the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and of course law enforcement.

 There has never been a successful prison escape in Japan, attempts yes but none of them were successful. Upon finishing your sentence or if your sentence is shortened, you are given a completion ceremony and presented with a certificate. Your family is allowed to attend. The objective behind this is to make the inmates feel that they have been rehabilitated and have accomplished a great feat giving them hope that they can be acclimated back into society.  Although I don’t agree with the torture, abuse and conditions of solitary confinement it does seem like Japanese prisons have a higher success rate compared to the U.S. when it comes to rehabilitation. I’m so glad I was able to go on a tour of a prison even if it was somewhat sugarcoated by the warden, it gives me a better understanding of the legal system in Japan. It's an experience you can't get from reading a book. That's one of the most valuable aspects about my time here, experiencing things like Hiroshima and doing time in Japan. For as hard as it has been for me to be in such a foreign land, it was been life changing and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.