Issue Salience and Criminal Policy Process in Japan: “Penal Populism” and “Penal Harshness Without Public Opinion”

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  • イシュー・セイリアンスと刑事政策―「ポピュリズム厳罰化」と「民意なき厳罰化」の政治過程―
  • イシュー ・ セイリアンス ト ケイジ セイサク : 「 ポピュリズム ゲンバツカ 」 ト 「 ミンイ ナキ ゲンバツカ 」 ノ セイジ カテイ

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<p>Is a recent series of more harshly punitive (genbatsu-ka) legislation in Japan regarded as the result of “penal populism,” which would mean that criminal policy unduly reflects public opinion according to civil emotions demanding reinforcement of “law and order?” While much research in the context of the sociology of crime has been based on "penal populism" theory and has indicated the political factors of criminal policy, political scientists have been quiet concerning this policy area. The purpose of this paper is to show the political mechanism of the recent, more harshly punitive legislation from a political scientist’s point of view. The paper analyzes punitive criminal policies that research in criminal law regards as harshly punitive legislation using a typological analysis that adopts two axes. One is the level of issue salience, and the other is a conflict between political parties. The paper then traces the legislative processes of the Juvenile Law and the Law against Child Prostitution and Pornography that have multiple lawmaking processes in the period of the analysis and characteristics related to the typology. Through the analysis, the paper argues that “penal populism” theory explains only the salient part of the recent punitive legislation such as the revision of the Juvenile Law of 2000, which was passed in the context of a series of atrocious juvenile crime cases, and that the framework of “low-salience policymaking,” in which policymaking is delegated to bureaucrats as the public has little interest in it, explains another large part of it. This argument suggests that the punitive legislation in question in Japan is not only the result of “penal populism” but also “penal harshness without public opinion.”</p>

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