NCJ Number
134587
Date Published
1992
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This overview of the Japanese criminal justice system encompasses the police, judiciary, law corrections, and juvenile justice as well as the political system.
Abstract
The overview includes brief histories of some of the components of the system; organization and administration are described; the various roles of practitioners are explained; the legal process is examined; and some issues of current concern are identified and discussed. Japan's justice system has many Anglo-American characteristics derived from the postwar influence of the West; however, the system still retains many of the Romano-Germanic legal traditions that have existed for generations. A distinctive feature of the entire criminal justice system is the deference shown to criminal justice personnel by citizens, offenders, and other criminal justice personnel. Criminal justice personnel are generally viewed as enforcers of both law and social morality. This pervasive perspective of the criminal justice system facilitates cooperation among the various system components. The Japanese strive to make criminal justice function as a system rather than as a multiplicity of dysfunctional components. The sentencing philosophy focuses on retribution and rehabilitation. Sentences tend to be lenient so as to encourage the rehabilitative process. Community corrections is viewed as more productive than rehabilitation attempted in an institutional setting. 3 organizational figures