Japan's justice system under the spotlight over botched cases, fabricated evidence

Straits Times

4 hours ago

Former Japanese boxer Iwao Hakamada, who was sentenced to hang in 1968 and released in 2014, and his sister Hideko (right) in Tokyo, on Nov 25, 2019. PHOTO: AFP
– Japan's criminal justice system is under intense scrutiny after the courts have, within months, twice accused law enforcement officials of 'fabricating evidence' in their zealous pursuit of convictions.
The damning indictments in two cases – one involving murder, the other economic security – expose flaws in a system that prides itself on a 99.8 per cent conviction rate.
On Oct 8, 2024, the nearly six-decade ordeal of former boxer Iwao Hakamada finally concluded when prosecutors decided not to appeal a retrial verdict that had exonerated him of four murders in 1966.
Mr Hakamada, now 89, was the world's longest-serving death row inmate. Sentenced to hang in 1968, a verdict upheld by the Supreme Court in 1980, his fight for a retrial finally led to his release on bail in 2014 and acquittal a decade later.
More recently, on June 11, a High Court verdict was finalised to award Yokohama-based spray-drying equipment maker Ohkawara Kakohki 166 million yen (S$1.47 million) in damages. The court had heard a shocking admission from a police officer: The entire case was fabricated and driven by the 'personal greed' of his superiors eyeing promotions.
The company, with fewer than 90 employees, makes equipment used for producing powdered products such as instant soup and pharmaceuticals.
In March 2020, three senior executives including president Masaaki Ohkawara, now 76, and ex-director Junji Shimada, now 72, were arrested on suspicions that their equipment could be used to make biological weapons. They were accused of breaching export control laws by selling to countries such as China without appropriate permits.
The trio were held for 332 days, with eight bail requests denied until February 2021. Tragically, bail came too late for former adviser Shizuo Aishima, who died of stomach cancer at 72 while in remand after failing to get proper medical attention.
Prosecutors, who argued against granting bail as it could lead to the destruction of evidence, would eventually drop charges in July 2021, prompting the company to sue for damages .
No apology was offered for four years, until prosecutors decided not to appeal the High Court judgment. In recent weeks, Japan's Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki expressed contrition on June 24 for 'causing great suffering and hardship', while Tokyo police and prosecutors visited the company on June 20, bowing in remorse.
National Police Agency commissioner-general Yoshinobu Kusunoki called the situation 'extremely regrettable', acknowledging that 'public trust in the police has been undermined'.
Global human rights watchdogs have long criticised Japan for 'hostage justice', characterised by prolonged detention, forced confessions, and a culture that effectively assumes suspects are guilty until proven innocent.
Suspects can be held for up to 23 days upon arrest without access to a lawyer, a duration far longer than most other countries. This can be extended by court order, or if suspects are 're-arrested' on different charges.
During this time, the police relentlessly pursue confessions and, reportedly, prosecutors lean on admissions of guilt rather than physical evidence in as many as nine out of 10 cases in deciding whether to go to trial.
'In Japan, when a prosecutor files an indictment, it is considered a formal request for trial, so prosecutors are said to only indict cases where they are sure to find a guilty verdict,' Kyushu University criminologist Koji Tabuchi told The Straits Times.
'This can be considered an advantage in terms of efficiency,' he said. 'But on the other hand, it can also be a disadvantage in that prosecutors tend to be very insistent on finding a guilty verdict after indictment.'
The cases against Mr Hakamada and Ohkawara Kakohki expose this at-all-cost pursuit of convictions.
In Mr Hakamada's case, Shizuoka District Court presiding judge Koshi Kunii ruled in the retrial that investigators tampered with evidence by smearing blood on clothing.
As for Ohkawara Kakohki, Tokyo High Court presiding judge Teruyoshi Ota in the trial found the entire investigation illegal and built on 'fundamental flaws'.
During the trial, an assistant police inspector testified that the probe proceeded 'without objective facts' and was based on the 'personal greed of investigators who were thinking about promotions'.
The case came against the backdrop of a heightened focus on economic security, with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe beefing up export control measures on sensitive materials.
The court found that, despite repeated denials, the police and prosecutors distorted evidence and induced the suspects to write statements that could be twisted to sound like admissions of guilt.
'I want to believe that investigative agencies would not fabricate evidence or cases in order to frame innocent persons,' Professor Tabuchi said. 'But it does seem possible that evidence can get destroyed or concealed as they proceed on the basis that the suspect is guilty.'
This amounts to more than a miscarriage of justice; at the human level, personal liberties are severely violated .
Some, like Mr Aishima, never get to taste freedom again.
Others, like Mr Hakamada, suffer mental health trauma from prolonged solitary confinement and the constant fear of execution.
'It is important for victims of wrongful convictions to have an easy-to-use retrial system,' Prof Tabuchi said, noting that Japan's archaic Criminal Procedure Code, enacted in 1948, has never been revised.
The current law states that retrials are granted only if there is 'clear evidence' to prove the innocence of the accused – but does not require prosecutors to disclose the evidence that they have.
For Mr Hakamada, it had taken 42 years for the courts to reopen the trial that led to his acquittal – a prolonged duration that has prompted a government review of the retrial system.
But Prof Tabuchi also noted there is a strong prevailing opinion that Japan's practices do not constitute 'hostage justice' or violate human rights.
'For a long time, we have struggled against an invisible power,' Mr Hakamada's sister Hideko, 92, said on May 30. 'My brother was arrested at the age of 30 and his whole life has been ruined. What was the government doing this whole time?'
THREE ONGOING HIGH-PROFILE CASES
Concealment of evidence
The Nagoya High Court will deliver its judgment on July 18 for the case against Shoshi Maekawa, 59, who has been granted a retrial over the brutal murder of a junior high school girl in 1986.
His defence team sought a retrial despite Mr Maekawa having completed a seven-year prison sentence from 1997 to 2004.
The hearing was reopened in 2022 after doubts were raised over key testimonies that the defence says were coerced or fabricated, with the judge assailing the prosecution for 'dishonest and sinful misconduct'.
Mr Maekawa insists that he had never met the girl, and the police do not have any concrete evidence that pins him to the crime scene. During the retrial, prosecutors made available for the first time 287 pieces of evidence that defence lawyers say prove his innocence.
Hostage justice
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, 81, the former chairman of publishing giant Kadokawa, is suing the government for 220 million yen in damages over 'hostage justice'.
The octogenarian was arrested and detained for 226 days on bribery charges pertaining to a scandal related to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021. He was released on bail in April 2023.
Kadokawa pleads innocent in the criminal case that is still before the courts.
In the civil lawsuit, he argues that his constitutional rights were violated given his prolonged detention was enforced despite a scheduled surgery he had for chronic heart problems. He has also filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Derogatory language and insults
Mr Yamato Eguchi, 38, a former lawyer, was arrested in 2018 on suspicions of harbouring a criminal and instigating him to lie to law enforcement officials.
But he chose to exercise his right to remain silent during his 250-day detention, with the police accusing him of being 'just a child', 'annoying', 'lacking in social skills' and 'a habitual liar' during interrogation.
He was given a suspended two-year prison sentence in 2020 . He sued for damages in March 2022, arguing mental distress and a violation of his rights as a suspect to remain silent after he was interrogated for more than 56 hours over 21 days .
The District Court granted him 1.1 million yen in damages in July 2024, with the judge finding that the investigators' repeated insults that were unrelated to the case formed a pressure tactic that violated his rights to remain silent. Mr Eguchi appealed, unsatisfied that the judge had not cited the length of interrogation as a psychological tactic in the verdict.
The High Court then upheld the 1.1 million yen in damages in February 2025, with the judge finding that the prosecutors had unfairly impugned Mr Eguchi's character. But the High Court did not find any violation of his rights to remain silent, and Mr Eguchi is again appealing the verdict with the case to be brought before the Supreme Court.
Walter Sim is Japan correspondent at The Straits Times. Based in Tokyo, he writes about political, economic and socio-cultural issues.
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