Next week, Japan’s national legislature, the Diet, is scheduled to convene its first session after the general elections on October 27. The new Diet should open an inquiry into the country’s troubled criminal justice system.
On October 9, Japan’s Public Prosecutors Office waived its right to appeal the acquittal after the retrial of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamata. Hakamata, a former boxer, had spent decades on death row after having been forced to falsely confess to murdering a family of four in 1966.
Hakamata’s case is a stark reminder that the Japanese government needs to urgently reform its criminal justice system. Prosecutor General Naomi Unemoto released a statement on October 8 that her office will review “the fact that his retrial proceedings have taken such a long time.” Indeed, 43 years had passed before the confirmation of Hakamata’s acquittal. He first submitted a request for a retrial in 1981.
While it is important for the Public Prosecutors Office to review retrial practices, this alone is not enough. Along with the new administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the new Diet should also open an inquiry that would lead to the adoption of legislative measures and other reforms.
An inquiry should focus on three issues. Crucial is the prevalence of forced confessions. Japan’s justice system has long been criticized as “hostage justice” for its prolonged pretrial detention without bail, coupled with interrogations without legal counsel that often involve coerced confessions through manipulation and intimidation.
Second is the use of the death penalty. Japan should abolish the death penalty because it is a cruel, irreversible, and irreparable form of punishment. Death row inmates are notified of their execution only on the day it occurs. Hakamata lived in fear of being executed on any given day for 33 years.
Third is the failure of the retrial system. It took an unacceptable 43 years for Hakamata to be retried and acquitted. The retrial law needs to be reformed.
Hakamata was sentenced to death based on a forced confession and a dysfunctional retrial system kept him on death row for decades. The Japanese government should introduce criminal justice reforms to prevent wrongful convictions and punishment such as Hakamata suffered from recurring in the future.
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