Presumed guilt? Unpacking Japan's 99.9% conviction rate.
| SAYAMA, JAPAN
It鈥檚 been nearly 60 years since Ishikawa Kazuo was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a high school girl in his hometown of Sayama, Japan. He鈥檚 maintained his innocence throughout the decades, and soon, he may get a rare chance to prove it.
By the end of this year, Japan鈥檚 court is expected to decide whether or not to grant the octogenarian a retrial.
鈥淲e have entered the final stretch,鈥� he told a crowd of supporters at a Sayama rally earlier this year, bowing deeply and vowing to clear his name.听
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onIn Japan, prosecutors won鈥檛 pursue cases they鈥檙e not sure they can win. That certainty results in a 99.9% conviction rate, but as victims of wrongful convictions are attesting, it doesn鈥檛 always guarantee justice.
Advocates say his case lays bare deep issues in Japan鈥檚 criminal justice system, which boasts a 99.9% conviction rate and relies heavily on confessions. Lack of research makes it difficult to know how many innocent people are found guilty in Japan courts, but one lawyer estimates the country produces as many as 1,500 wrongful convictions annually 鈥� more than the United States, according to . The Tokyo-based Association of Victims of Wrongful Convictions is in contact with at least 25 prisoners who claim to be victims of wrongful conviction, and there are dozens more who鈥檝e been released or acquitted.
Many are seeking justice by calling for legal reform and greater accountability from the state. But experts say the bigger challenge will be changing the culture surrounding crime in Japan 鈥� one that prioritizes fast arrests and convictions, demonizes offenders, and places immense trust in police and prosecutors.
鈥淵ou assume one is guilty even before a trial takes place,鈥� says Harada Masaharu, whose younger brother was murdered in the 1980s. He now leads Ocean, an association advocating for dialogue between crime victims and offenders. This case-closed mentality is 鈥渓ikely to create wrongful convictions,鈥� he says, which rob crime victims of justice, too.听
鈥淔amilies of victims really want to know why our loved ones had to be killed,鈥� he adds, 鈥渂ut we are left uninformed.鈥�
False confessions
The Samaya case is not the first to shine a spotlight on Japan鈥檚 criminal justice shortfalls.
In 2019, the system came under international scrutiny when ousted Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn dramatically escaped the country after a total of 130 days in detention, saying he was fleeing 鈥渋njustice and political persecution.鈥澛�
And in March, Japan鈥檚 court ordered a retrial of Hakamada Iwao, considered the world鈥檚 , after nearly half a century of incarceration.听
Next up is Mr. Ishikawa, his supporters say.
His saga began in May 1963, when local teenager Nakata Yoshie went missing from their small city north of Tokyo. Dozens of police officers failed to capture a suspect who showed up to collect her ransom during a sting operation. The incident, which came just a month after police fumbled a similar kidnap-for-ransom case in Tokyo, prompted public outcry.
Under enormous pressure to arrest a culprit, the Saitama Prefectural Police focused their search on the city鈥檚 community, descendants of feudal-era outcasts who still face discrimination. They arrested Mr. Ishikawa, an illiterate construction worker, and after weeks of interrogation without lawyers, Mr. Ishikawa says police manipulated him into a confession by threatening to arrest his brother and promising a short sentence. But after pleading guilty to murder, the 25-year-old was sentenced to hang.听
The high court later commuted the sentence to life in prison, and in 1994, he was released on parole.听
鈥淢r. Ishikawa was falsely arrested before I was born,鈥� says Aoki Keiko, who spent 20 years behind bars for the alleged murder of her 11-year-old daughter and now leads the Association of Victims of Wrongful Convictions. 鈥淗e has not been acquitted yet. The system has been so wrong for so long.鈥�
Even today, there are cases of police targeting vulnerable communities, such as non-Japanese and working poor, in an effort to make a swift arrest following a crime. And cases routinely hinge on confessions, says Ms. Aoki, despite research showing that false confessions are not only common, but also relatively .听
She recalls how two male police officers showered her with abusive language during a prolonged interrogation back in 1995. The questioning lasted for 33 days, and by the end, Ms. Aoki was worn out. Police said her partner had already confessed. She did the same.听
It was 2016 when she and her former partner were acquitted during a retrial, and she is currently seeking damages from the government.
Miyake Katsuhisa, a journalist and author who has covered wrongful convictions for many years, describes these sorts of interrogations as 鈥減sychological torture鈥� meant to 鈥渃reate a result quickly.鈥� Still, he says most Japanese support the police and fail to see the dark side of the 99.9% conviction rate.
Presumption of guilt and partial evidence
One factor that contributes to these attitudes is that major media, which have long been criticized for their collusive relationship with authority figures, rarely investigate cases independently, only聽reporting the information they get from police and prosecutors. Another is the intense social stigma around criminal activity.
Many experts also point out that the high conviction rate is in large part a result of Japan鈥檚 low indictment rate 鈥� in other words, prosecutors only move forward with cases they are sure they can win. Japan鈥檚 alludes to this while explaining that 99.9% figure.
鈥淚n order to avoid imposing an undue burden on innocent people for being involved in a trial, prosecutors, in practice, bring indictments only if there is a high probability of obtaining a conviction based on adequate evidence,鈥� the website states.
Yet critics say that judges and defense don鈥檛 get to see that evidence. Unlike the United States, Japan does not have a pretrial discovery process that allows defendants access to prosecutorial evidence.
鈥淧olice and prosecutors spend taxpayers鈥� money to collect evidence,鈥� says Kyoto-based lawyer Kamoshida Yumi. 鈥淗owever, prosecutors present only incriminating evidence to a court, while hiding other pieces of evidence that could point away from the accused.鈥�
Because of this implicit trust in prosecutors鈥� judgment, Ms. Kamoshida says, some judges hand down guilty verdicts without careful consideration of the defense, who are effectively 鈥減resumed guilty.鈥� It鈥檚 also very difficult to get a retrial 鈥� Mr. Ishikawa has been denied twice 鈥撀燼nd even in the rare case that a person is exonerated, Ms. Aoki says prosecutors and police are not held accountable.听
鈥淭hey never apologize for their failures, never reflect on them and never look into them,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey are desperate to save face and save the system.鈥澛�
The victims association and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, along with other experts and advocates, are pressing to reform Japan鈥檚 retrial law, which has not been revised in its 74 years of existence. They want to prohibit prosecutors from filing an appeal, which they argue delays trials and adds undue pressure on the accused and their defense, and to ensure all evidence is disclosed before the initial trial.
In the case of Mr. Ishikawa, the disclosure of more than 250 pieces of evidence 鈥� revealed slowly over the past 14 years 鈥� could be a game-changer.听
Indeed, public pressure has led to a trickle of evidence, including undisclosed interrogation tapes and a new handwriting sample, which supporters say prove Mr. Ishikawa could not have authored the ransom note as police asserted in the 1963 trial.
鈥淭he new evidence will certainly demonstrate my innocence,鈥� he says.
Editor鈥檚 note: This story has been updated to correct Ishikawa Kazuo鈥檚 age at the time of his conviction, and the police department leading the investigation.听
