This book provides an important overview of key criminology and criminal justice concerns in Japan. It highlights similarities between the practice of criminology research in Japan, as well as important differences, with other areas of Asia and with the West. In previous decades, Japan attracted international attention as the only industrialized country where the crime rate declined along with a rise in urbanization and economic development. Currently, Japan still enjoys a declining crime rate (the lowest among major industrialized countries) and a study of criminal justice practices in Japan may provide important insights for other regions. Japan also experiences important contemporary challenges which are shared by other regions: 1. Japan has the highest proportion of people over the age of 60 in the world. For criminology, this means key challenges in the victimization of older people, as well as the challenges of an aging prison population. 2. Besides the United States, Japan is the only developed country that still practices capital punishment, and its rate has been on the rise in the past 20 years. 3. Japan has also introduced new reforms in its law practice, including the introduction of new trial formats. The research in this book provides a helpful overview for scholars interested in criminology and criminal justice in Japan to understand the key issues of concern, and present a framework for future research needs. It will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, international studies, Asian Studies, sociology, and political science.

This book provides an important overview of key criminology and criminal justice concerns in Japan. It highlights similarities between the practice of criminology research in Japan, as well as important differences, with other areas of Asia and with the West. In previous decades, Japan attracted international attention as the only industrialized country where the crime rate declined along with a rise in urbanization and economic development. Currently, Japan still enjoys a declining crime rate (the lowest among major industrialized countries) and a study of criminal justice practices in Japan may provide important insights for other regions. Japan also experiences important contemporary challenges which are shared by other regions: 1. Japan has the highest proportion of people over the age of 60 in the world. For criminology, this means key challenges in the victimization of older people, as well as the challenges of an aging prison population. 2. Besides the United States, Japan is the only developed country that still practices capital punishment, and its rate has been on the rise in the past 20 years. 3. Japan has also introduced new reforms in its law practice, including the introduction of new trial formats. The research in this book provides a helpful overview for scholars interested in criminology and criminal justice in Japan to understand the key issues of concern, and present a framework for future research needs. It will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, international studies, Asian Studies, sociology, and political science.--

"This is a book I wish I'd written. It's brilliantly researched, full of detail and illuminating…" --Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Ice Uncover the shocking world of the Japanese courtroom. In a country where nearly all defendants plead guilty, the interesting part is what happens between the plea and the sentencing. In True Crime Japan, journalist and longtime resident of Japan Paul Murphy delves into a year's worth of criminal court cases in Matsumoto, a city located 140 miles to the west of Tokyo. The nine defendants in these cases range from ruthless mobsters to average citizens with a variety of methods and motives. Using court documents and interviews, Murphy makes a point of including the perspectives of the defendants, as well as those of their families, neighbors, and lawyers. He explores not only the motives of offenders but the culture of crime and punishment in Japan. The nine cases include: "Late in Life" -- A wealthy octogenarian is put in jail for stealing fried chicken "Mama's Boys" -- A disbelieving family unveils their son's role as a yakuza gangster. "Mother Killers" -- A middle-aged carpenter beats his 91-year old mother to death and goes to work the following day, leaving the body for his wife to find. True Crime Japan provides an unusual lens through which to view Japanese society and its emphasis on honor, shame, and conformity. Murphy's in-depth analysis of the court system reveals Japan to be, perhaps surprisingly, a land of true individuals.

This edited volume presents the diversity of comparative criminology research in Asia, and the complex theoretical and methodological issues involved in conducting comparative research. With contributors both from the West and the East exploring these questions, the Editors have created a balanced resource, as well as set an agenda for future research. The increasing pace of globalization means that researchers should be armed with an understanding of how criminal justice systems work across the world. In the past, comparative research largely compared Western countries to each other, or involve d researchers from a Western perspective examining an Asian country, with models and theories developed in the West considered to have universal applications. This work aims to correct that gap, by providing a critical examination of comparative research, presenting quantitative and qualitative research data, and asking new questions that challenge prevailing research norms and provide an agenda for future research. This work will be of interest for researchers across the field of Criminology, particularly those with an interest in International and Comparative Research, research on or about Asia, and related disciplines such as Sociology, Demography, and Social Policy. “This fine collection that goes to the rich distinctiveness of Asian criminology. The editors have brought together a wonderful collection of authors mainly from the region. The distinctiveness of values and relational practices in Asia are recurrent themes that are well developed in this book and help us to make sense of patterns of crime and criminal justice in Asia.” John Braithwaite, Australian National University “What theoretical, methodological, and practical issues must we confront in conducting cross-cultural studies encompassing Western and Asian countries? Comparative Criminology in Asia discusses these issues and presents exemplary comparative research. The introductory chapter and the introduction to each part by the co-editors are lucid and highly educational. This collection must be required reading for every serious scholar and aspiring graduate student in Asian countries so that criminological and criminal justice studies will be brought to a much higher level o f sophistication.” Setsuo Miyazawa, UC Hastings “Can there be – and should there be -- a distinctive Asian criminology? What would this involve? The answer depends on what one thinks of the universalistic explanatory claims of Western criminology. Will these claims become self- fulfilling as these societies add to colonial influences a more deliberate borrowing of criminal justice models and established ways of pursuing discipline of criminology? Or will a more critical spirit prevail? This welcome edited collection by Liu, Travers and Chang provides an excellent starting point for reflecting on these and other questions. Rather than attempting to provide descriptions of the variety of similarities and differences in this region (though there are some fascinating case studies of these) the focus is even more on exploring the theoretical approa ches and methodologies used in comparing institutional and cultural differences by Asian criminologists and others.” David Nelken, King’s College, London “Criminologists can no longer ignore the impact of globalization on the pattern and amount of crime as we experienced recently, nor can we ignore the global change of criminal justice policies to deal with crime. There is, therefore, a desperate need to collect data on how crime and criminal justice are influenced by globalization across Asian countries. On the other hand, there are debates on the issue of culture-specific vs. pan-culture theories of crime. This collection addresses both issues in an interesting way. Its publication is timely and welcome.” Chuen-Jim Sheu, National Taipei University

"I don't blame my executioners. I will pray God bless them. " So said General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japan's most accomplished military commander, as he stood on the scaffold in Manila in 1946. His stoic dignity typified the man his U.S. Army defense lawyers had come to deeply respect in the first war crimes trial of World War II. Moments later, he was dead. But had justice been served? Allan A. Ryan reopens the case against Yamashita to illuminate crucial questions and controversies that have surrounded his trial and conviction, but also to deepen our understanding of broader contemporary issues-especially the limits of command accountability. The atrocities of 1944 and 1945 in the Philippines-rape, murder, torture, beheadings, and starvation, the victims often women and children-were horrific. They were committed by Japanese troops as General Douglas MacArthur's army tried to recapture the islands. Yamashita commanded Japan's dispersed and besieged Philippine forces in that final year of the war. But the prosecution conceded that he had neither ordered nor committed these crimes. MacArthur charged him, instead, with the crime-if it was one-of having "failed to control" his troops, and convened a military commission of five American generals, none of them trained in the law. It was the first prosecution in history of a military commander on such a charge. In a turbulent and disturbing trial marked by disregard of the Army's own rules, the generals delivered the verdict they knew MacArthur wanted. Yamashita's lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose controversial decision upheld the conviction over the passionate dissents of two justices who invoked, for the first time in U.S. legal history, the concept of international human rights. Drawing from the tribunal's transcripts, Ryan vividly chronicles this tragic tale and its personalities. His trenchant analysis of the case's lingering question-should a commander be held accountable for the crimes of his troops, even if he has no knowledge of them-has profound implications for all military commanders.

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Because people’s contact with the criminal justice system comes in different shapes and forms, scholars are now broadening their analytical scope and examining the overall repercussions of criminal justice contact on families of offenders. Compared to Western societies, Japan is known for its lower crime rates and more pronounced use of informal social control. Thus, it offers a useful research site for examining how families in a low-crime society experience criminal justice contact and how they function as an integral part of the nation’s crime control mechanism. This book considers the role of the family in the lives of offenders and the criminal justice system in Japan. Looking particularly at gender and patriarchal power relations, it reveals how cultural notions of femininity prompt the criminal justice system to rely on women as its proxy. This book explores how families of offenders often step in to fill the voids left by criminal justice institutions and social services to provide offenders with all-inclusive care. The burden of supervising and rehabilitating offenders on top of the expectation to atone for the crimes also renders families ambivalent and ashamed. Whereas the state and criminal justice authorities tend to see offenders’ families as a crucial resource for prisoner reentry, this book highlights the necessity for addressing families’ needs before automatically assuming their support. It also pushes the boundaries of feminist criminology by showing how women can be affected by male criminality and male-dominated criminal justice institutions, other than as victims and offenders. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, gender studies, Japanese culture and all those interested in learning more about the criminal justice system in Japan.