[laurent92]

If you are afraid of the lack of rule of law, there are not many countries we need to avoid. Japan has a 99.995% of inculpation after their police interview. And that has to do with the fact that their interview can lawfully last for 22 days, renewable. You can’t even avoid USA: 95% of jailmates are there upon self-admission of guilt without external proof, ie. without objective proof besides self-incrimination.

[thematrixturtle]

Incorrect: Japan has a 99.95% conviction rate for cases that go to trial. This is partly achieved by lengthy pretrial detention determined to extract confessions out of people, but equally importantly by not prosecuting any cases that are less than watertight (read: the culprit has already confessed).

[mbg721]

This raises a good point. A just state should be efficient at identifying crimes; an unjust state can charge suspects who will never be convicted, or harass them without charging them.

[friedturkey]

Man people really see some blog post about Japanese law by a person who doesn’t speak the language and think it’s some 1984 style country.

In all honesty you can basically apologize out of a lot of crimes and police generally don’t bother with anything else unless there’s video evidence, they catch you in the act, or you’re a high profile person involved in a high profile act.

Just never get caught with drugs in your possession, and if you get caught with personal amounts, apologize and cry. Not kidding.

[anonAndOn]

Too bad they don't teach the crying technique before you visit! The young man I'm familiar with was locked up in holding (not sent to prison) for six months then put on a plane to his home country and told never to come back. That was a REALLY expensive joint.

[friedturkey]

It’s basically the inverse of the US system.

In the US, unless they have a solid case and offer a plea bargain, you’re better off not talking to cops and staying silent until they give up. In Japan, once you know they have somewhat of a case, you’re better off making it easy for the police and immediately apologizing. They mostly just drag people who don’t comply and haven’t really learned their lesson (it’s assumed you won’t be dumb enough to make the same mistake twice).

Most first time drug cases end with an apology, crying, and being let go. Americans make the mistake of thinking not talking will help, so police hold them until they do. It can help in bigger crimes, though, since if the evidence is hard to prove, they’ll just hold you for a while and hope you’ll confess, but if not, often let you go instead of risk losing at a trial.

[dr_dshiv]

What do the Japanese have against drugs?

[kmeisthax]

Japanese drug prosecution is about as strict as American child porn prosecution, with the same para-judicial stigma about possession of it. If you are caught with drugs in Japan, you are going to be doing hard time, and even when you get out of jail people will not want to associate with you. In the rare case where the police prosecute you without evidence, you're still going to wind up spending months in a holding cell waiting for exoneration, and have to explain to everyone in the meantime that you were falsely accused of drug possession.

(The inverse is also true: Japan is rather lax about CSAM possession, about to the same degree as America is lax about weed possession. It's technically a crime but most people caught will be let off with a fine and a warning.)

[anonAndOn]

>Japan is rather lax about CSAM possession

Quite the opposite, in fact. CSAM is a pillar of the manga industry. Enjo kosai (compensated dating) is a cultural norm.

[kmeisthax]

...Wait, that's what I was saying. What do you mean by quite the opposite?

[xyzzyz]

Maybe they observed what widespread drug use did to China in 19th century, and what it is doing to US now, and are trying to nip that in the bud.

[dr_dshiv]

What is Cannabis doing to the USA now? I’m assuming the “don’t get caught with drugs in Japan” is referring to soft drugs. Maybe I’m wrong.

http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/The-history-current-state...

[xyzzyz]

You know I'm not talking about cannabis.

[rayiner]

You’re incorrect as to the US, and I suspect as to Japan as well. Lots of criminals in America plead guilty, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no “external proof” of guilt. Cops are lazy and criminals are dumb. So what you end up with in nearly all cases is that cops make arrests in easy cases with tons of evidence. Confronted with the video tape, cell phone records, etc., the accused then pleads guilty. Rarely do you see the kind of cases you hear about on Podcasts where guilt turns on circumstantial evidences and confessions. I’ve seen this from inside the court system.

My wife had a homicide trial where prosecutors had a complete video tape record of the accused shooting the victim and driving back to his house. The trial was just cutting from one CCTV feed to the next as the accused drove around town. The jury found him guilty—because of course they did.

[TuringNYC]

On this topic, this literally happened this week in New Jersey: https://twitter.com/closequarters92/status/14936736252784558...

[rayiner]

What does this have to do with the evidence supporting criminal convictions?

[mbg721]

At what point would you waive the right to a trial-by-jury? I think about that from time to time; if I'm accused of something, what crimes are less sympathetic to my peers than to a judge?

[rayiner]

Your peers aren’t sympathetic to crime at all. A 2014 sentencing project report found that supermajorities of people (including both white and Black people, by the way) believe that the criminal justice system is “not harsh enough.”

[mbg721]

Those are the people who get out of the jury population. The ones who remain are scary.

[bragr]

Japan has a very strong rule of law. It is just that the law is a bit medieval.