The Japanese Way of Justice

Prosecuting Crime in Japan

David T. Johnson

Studies on Law and Social Control

The Japanese Way of Justice

Prosecuting Crime in Japan

David T. Johnson

Studies on Law and Social Control

Description

Criminal proceedings in which people can lose life, liberty, or reputation tell us a great deal about the character of any society. In Japan, it is prosecutors who wield the greatest control over these values and who therefore reveal most clearly the character of the Japanese way of justice. In this book, David T. Johnson portrays Japanese prosecutors at work; the social, political, and legal contexts that enable and constrain their actions; and the content of the justice thereby delivered. Johnson is the first researcher, Japanese or foreign, to gain access to the frontline prosecutors who charge cases and the backstage prosecutors who manage and direct them. He shows that prosecutors in Japan frequently harmonize to imperlatives of justice that Americans often regard as irreconcilable: the need to individualize cases alike. However, their capacity to correct offenders and to obtain contrite, complete confessions from criminal suspects. Johnson argues that this extreme reliance on confessions occasionally leads to extreme efforts to extract them. Indeed, much of the most disturbing prosecutor behavior springs directly or indirectly from the system's inordinate dependence on admissions of guilt. The major achievements of Japanese criminal justice are thus inextricably intertwined with its most notable defects, and efforts to fix the defects threaten to undermine the accomplishments. Clearly written and skillfully argued, this comparative analysis will be of interest to students of Japan, criminology, and law and society. It illuminates unexplored realms in Japan's criminal justice system while challenging readers to examine their assumptions about how crime should be prosecuted in their own systems of criminal justice.

The Japanese Way of Justice

Prosecuting Crime in Japan

David T. Johnson

Studies on Law and Social Control

Author Information

David T. Johnson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

The Japanese Way of Justice

Prosecuting Crime in Japan

David T. Johnson

Studies on Law and Social Control

Reviews and Awards

Co- winner of the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Law Section Distinguished Book Award

The Japanese Way of Justice makes an outstanding contributionto both scholarship on the Japanese criminal justice system and comparative sociolegal research in general. The author communicates his thoughts so well that anyone generally interested in criminal prosecution will find it of interest." --Law and Politics Book Review

"Americans like to think that Japan is evolving into an Anglo-American-style 'liberal democracy.' Nowhere are they more wrong than in a comparison of the two countries' criminal justice systems. The independence of Japan's prosecutors and their decisions to indict based on social impact, not a citizen's complaint, is totally alien to our system, but it may deliver more justice. David Johnson's truly brilliant analysis is an eye-opener."--Chalmers Johnson, Japan Policy Research Institute

"This is a superb book. David Johnson provides a detailed and nuanced account of the vitally important role played by prosecutors in Japan, based on several months of direct personal observation inside a large prosecutor's office, together with extensive interviews, surveys and other research. This book will immediately occupy a place as one of the most important works on the Japanese criminal justice system in any language."--Daniel H. Foote, University of Tokyo Faculty of Law

"This is quite simply the best book on the administration of justice in Japan in English or in any other language.... With its concern for context, theory, and method it offers a sophisticated analysis that is unparalleled in studies of the Japanese legal system. Indeed, it sets a new standard for comparative sociolegal scholarship generally. Comparative scholars, regardless of their particular focus, will benefit from a close reading of this book."--Malcolm M. Feeley, University of California at Berkeley