The Japanese criminal justice system has an extremely high conviction rate which was significantly lower before Japan eliminated its
jury system in 1943. Lobbying by human rights groups and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations resulted in the passing of a judicial reform bill in May, 2004, which will reintroduce a lay-jury system in 2009.
[1]
Many Western human rights organizations alleged that the high conviction rate is due to rampant use of conviction solely based on
confession, notwithstanding Article 38 of Japan's Constitution,which categorically requires that "no person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession," and that no person can be convicted unless accompanied by other evidence to corroborate that confession.
Due to the lack of a jury system, the Japanese justice system (along with all other civil law jurisdictions) is said to be very bureaucratic and predictable. Because judges work under a fairly uniform system of evidence and procedure, which is indirectly supervised by Ministry of Justice, the district prosecutor knows exactly the types of evidence which are needed to secure a conviction from a judge. Consequently, failing to secure a conviction would be seen as serious failure in his judgement for pressing charges in the first place and even a single failure would have a serious negative impact on the career of a prosecutor.
One of the consequences of this arrangement is that prosecutors rarely press charges involving the rape or assault of an acquaintance.
