A cyclist rides his bike along a small street filled with shops and restaurants in downtown Osaka on April 10, 2025. Richard A. Brooks, AFP

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:958px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17518645880471744624740840New Project (3).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"> A cyclist rides his bike along a small street filled with shops and restaurants in downtown Osaka on April 10, 2025. Richard A. Brooks, AFP</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align:left"><br/></div><p>TOKYO — Yo Amano says he is unravelling in a cell where he has been confined alone almost 24 hours a day for over six years, despite not having been convicted of the fraud charges against him.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/10/japanese-yakuza-group-promises-no-more-trouble-1631">Japanese yakuza group promises &#x27;no more trouble&#x27;</a></div><p>In Japan&#x27;s harsh criminal justice system, critics say innocence is not presumed and coerced confessions help drive the 99 percent conviction rate.</p><p>&quot;From the moment I was arrested, I&#x27;ve been treated like I&#x27;m a prisoner,&quot; Amano, 36, told AFP through a glass screen at the Tokyo Detention Centre, where he is held alongside people convicted of violent crimes, including death-row inmates.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m sure something is wrong with me mentally, but I can&#x27;t tell for sure because I can&#x27;t even get a decent medical diagnosis here,&quot; he said.</p><p>Campaigners argue that lengthy pre-trial detention is meted out too easily in Japan, especially if suspects remain silent or refuse to confess.</p><p>That often makes confessions a de-facto condition for their release, one that rights groups say exists in few other liberal democracies.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/6/27/japan-executes-twitter-killer-who-murdered-nine-1506">Japan executes &#x27;Twitter killer&#x27; who murdered nine</a></div><p>This alleged use of confinement as a way to elicit confessions -- or &quot;hostage justice&quot; -- is under renewed scrutiny after a group of victims recently filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.</p><p>Lawyer Takashi Takano, who spearheads the suit, slammed the &quot;completely inverted chronology&quot;.</p><p>In Japan, &quot;if you contest your charges, your bail is denied and detention drags on. You get punished and robbed of everything first, sometimes before the trial even begins, followed finally by a verdict,&quot; he told AFP.</p><p>AFP obtained rare, court-issued approval to speak to Amano, who denies the charges against him.</p><p>Since his 2018 arrest, he has been locked up incommunicado, having &quot;lost everything&quot;, including his job, partner and mental health.</p><p>In summer, what little coolness there is in the detention facility filters through a small food slot into Amano&#x27;s sweltering cell.</p><p>Three tatami mats fill the floor space, and there is no air conditioning.</p><p>For most of the day, Amano is not allowed to lie down or lean against a wall, so he spends hours sitting on a mat.</p><p>The former restaurant owner says he has lost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) since his arrest.</p><p>He can only contact his lawyers and is denied access to anyone else, including family, barring rare exceptions.</p><p>This has left him estranged from the &quot;daughter I doted on&quot;, now seven years old, and whom he last saw in 2019.</p><p>&quot;I don&#x27;t know if she still remembers me.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent"><strong>&#x27;EXTRACTING CONFESSIONS&#x27;</strong></span></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent"><br/></span></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent">&quot;Hostage justice&quot;  -- a term popularized by ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn&#x27;s months-long, 2018-2019 detention -- has been repeatedly decried by international rights bodies.</span></div><p>The latest lawsuit challenges judges&#x27; ability to &quot;rubber-stamp&quot; detentions, and to reject bail without demonstrating &quot;probable cause&quot; that evidence will be destroyed, according to lawyer Takano.</p><p>In Japan, pre-indictment detention can last up to 23 days, extendable by multiple rearrests.</p><p>Only after indictment does bail become possible, but as with Amano, the option is often dismissed if the accused denies the charges, campaigners say.</p><p>Judicial data from 2021 shows that those who confessed were released much more quickly than those who denied the charges.</p><p>&quot;In Japan, refusing to confess or remaining silent is seen as high-risk behavior of someone likely to destroy evidence,&quot; Kana Sasakura, a criminal law professor at Konan University, told AFP.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/5/22/japan-taxi-driver-suspected-of-raping-50-women-reports-1514">Japan taxi driver suspected of raping 50 women: reports</a></div><p>Furthermore, detainees are typically interrogated without attorneys -- a stark contrast to most Group of Seven and East Asian democracies -- which makes it harder to withstand the pressure of questioning.</p><p>This, coupled with gruellng confinement, attests to Japan&#x27;s overall reliance on confessions, Sasakura noted.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a structure where, by conducting interrogations behind closed doors and isolating the suspect from the outside world, extracting confessions is made easier,&quot; she said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;FAIR&#x27; SYSTEM</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The justice ministry told AFP that &quot;prolonged detention solely on the grounds of remaining silent or denying charges isn&#x27;t occurring&quot;.</p><p>&quot;We don&#x27;t use physical detention to force confessions,&quot; it added, defending Japan&#x27;s &quot;fair&quot; and &quot;evidence-based&quot; system.</p><p>But Tomoya Asanuma, another plaintiff in the suit, recalls almost cracking under the strain.</p><p>Last year, the 36-year-old transgender activist endured almost four months of detention for charges including assault that he was ultimately acquitted of in January.</p><p>&quot;Detectives would tell me, &#x27;confess already, and we don&#x27;t have to interrogate you so many times,&#x27;&quot; Asanuma told AFP of the frequent, hours-long questioning.</p><p>Life under constant surveillance, including when he bathed or relieved himself, was a source of extra humiliation as his body still retained biologically female characteristics .</p><p>&quot;The thought repeatedly crossed my mind that if I falsely confessed, I can maybe escape all this,&quot; he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WON&#x27;T BETRAY THEIR TRUST&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>And therein lies the secret to Japan&#x27;s astonishing 99-percent conviction rate, lawyer Takano argues.</p><p>&quot;After such endless interrogations, most people break and confess,&quot; leading to statements adopted by courts as evidence, he said.</p><p>A case in point is Iwao Hakamada, who was once the world&#x27;s longest-serving death-row inmate. His convictions -- quashed last year -- relied partly on confessions made during what the Supreme Court ruled were &quot;inhumane&quot; interrogations.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/14/japan-sees-record-population-drop-in-2024-1759">Japan sees record population drop in 2024</a></div><p>&quot;That&#x27;s what undergirds the &#x27;99-percent&#x27; conviction rate. But do you really trust such guilty verdicts?&quot; Takano said.</p><p>In his cell with an exposed toilet, Amano languishes with little sense of the time or weather outside.</p><p>The light remains on after bedtime, but he is not allowed to cover his face with bedding.</p><p>But still he will not confess.</p><p>&quot;If I succumb now and choose an easy way out, I would disappoint people who still support me,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;I won&#x27;t betray their trust.&quot;</p><div><strong>—By Tomohiro Osaki, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS: </strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S6k6rvr4Afg?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hO7GTI5iyyk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>In Japan's harsh criminal justice system, critics say innocence is not presumed and coerced confessions help drive the 99 percent conviction rate.</p>

In Japan's harsh criminal justice system, critics say innocence is not presumed and coerced confessions help drive the 99 percent conviction rate.

'Pressed to confess': The story behind Japan's nearly perfect conviction rate

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'Pressed to confess': The story behind Japan's nearly perfect conviction rate

Agence France-Presse

Published Jul 07, 2025 01:16 PM PHT

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