Japanese Punishment in Comparative Perspective (Symposium: Globalized Penal Populism and its Countermeasures)

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 比較的視点による日本の刑罰 (課題研究 グローバル化する厳罰化ポピュリズムとその対策)
  • Japanese punishment in comparative perspective

Search this article

Abstract

Japan's imprisonment rate has risen 75 percent since 1992. In comparative perspective that increase is not unusual, for at least seven other Asian nations have experienced even larger increases over the same period of time. What sets Japan apart from the rest of Asia is the fact that both its use of imprisonment and its use of capital punishment have risen in recent years. In no other Asian nation is that the case. This article compares Japan's imprisonment and capital punishment policies to those in the rest of the region. It argues that "penal populism"-the political effort to satisfy public demand for more severe punishment-is not driving death penalty policies in most Asian jurisdictions. In Japan, penal populism appears to be one contributing cause of the recent death penalty resurgence, but "leadership from the front" seems to be at least as important a cause. Looking forward, it is difficult to tell whether Japan will curtail its use of capital punishment by responding to the influence of international norms against the death penalty (as it did when executions plummeted 97 percent in the first 30 years of the Meiji period), or whether it will continue to practice capital punishment by rooting future policy in another prominent pattern of Japanese history: the penchant for negating the universalistic claims of other civilizations. In the end, Japan's aversion to the absolutism of human rights might be a major obstacle to efforts to stem the country's current death penalty resurgence and, ultimately, to eliminate the sanction altogether.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top