Mai Sato

The Japanese Probation Service: A third sector template?

The use of probation in Japan is similar in some respects to probation in England and Wales (E&W) and unrecognizable in others. This article provides an outline of the structure and operation of probation in Japan and draws comparisons and contrasts with probation in England and Wales. It is intended to provide an overview for those who know little about Japanese criminal justice in general and about Japanese probation in particular. The focus in on accessible English language sources that will enable readers to follow up their interest and deepen their knowledge.

From Measuring Support for the Death Penalty to Justifying Its Retention: Japanese Public Opinion Surveys on Crime and Punishment, 1956–2014

The death penalty remains a controversial issue in Japan. While Japan has been a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1979, the Japanese government has been reluctant to abolish the death penalty on the grounds that public opinion supported its retention. This claim rests on the results of surveys conducted every 5 years by the Japanese government. This article compares two of these surveys, from 1967 to 2014, showing how the nature of the questions has changed during this period, and reports on a secondary data analysis for the 1967 survey. First, the article argues that earlier surveys were more open and honest and the later surveys are more geared to generating answers that support the government’s position. Second, it argues that public opinion towards the death penalty is not as clear-cut as it seems. The rate of approval varies, and a more nuanced picture can be derived from both surveys. The article concludes that the public in fact would probably have been ready for abolition as long ago as 1967. While the government continues to cite public support for the death penalty as justification for retaining it, the strength of that support is ambiguous at best.

Information and punitiveness: trial reconstruction in Ireland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report results from a rape trial reconstruction in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach – A studio audience of 100 members of the Irish public were selected to attend a TV programme by the Republic of Ireland’s national broadcasting organisation. This involved the examination of the sentencing of a rape case. The audience’s sentencing preferences were measured at the outset, when they had been given only summary information about the case, and later, when full details had been disclosed. Findings – Previous research examining changes in public attitudes to crime and punishment has shown that deliberation, including the provision of new information and discussion with others and experts, tends to decrease public punitiveness and increase public leniency towards sentencing. An experiment in Ireland, however, showed that providing information does not invariably and necessarily moderate punitive attitudes. This paper presents the results, and offers some explanations...

Public Attitudes towards the Death Penalty

This review focuses on empirical studies which identify the factors that appear to shape – or at least correlate with – public attitudes to the death penalty. Some studies described in the review include public attitudes to punishment in general, where literature on the death penalty is limited or where more advances have been made. “Public attitudes to the death penalty” is treated as a sub-category of “public attitudes to punishment” because the death penalty is the most extreme form of existing punishment (Bobo & Johnson, 2004, pp. 158-159).

The Deliberative Consultation

This chapter examines deliberated views on the death penalty among a group of 50 Japanese adults. Attitudes to the death penalty are measured not only by comparing the result of the surveys conducted pre- and post-deliberation on death penalty positions, but also by examining factors that lie behind support and rejection of the death penalty – such as interpretation of new information, belief about the courts, the importance of victims’ families and the weight of offenders’ remorse in qualifying retributive attitudes. The analyses presented here extend findings, and in some cases fill in unanswered gaps, from the two surveys. Indepth analysis of attitude was possible largely due to the design of the deliberative consultation, which provided both quantitative and qualitative data before, during, and after the process of deliberation.

What role for nuclear power in Japan after Fukushima? A human security perspective

1. Human Security Comes Home: Responding to Japans Triple Disaster Paul Bacon and Christopher Hobson 2. The Politics of Human Security in Japan Paul Bacon 3. Mismanaging Risk and the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Jeff Kingston 4. Hidden Insecurities: The Workers of Fukushima Dai-ichi Christopher Hobson 5. Human Security as a Military Security Left-Over, or as Part of the Human Condition? Paul James 6. Human Security and Life Recover: Lessons from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake and the 2011 Triple Disaster Mayumi Sakamoto 7. Towards a People-centred Housing Recover after the Triple Disaster Elizabeth Maly 8. An Ageing Society and Post-Disaster Community Security Junko Otani 9. Post-disaster Recovery and the Cultural Dimension of Human Security Akiko Fukushima 10. What Role for Nuclear Power in Japan after Fukushima? A Human Security Perspective Paul Bacon and Mai Sato 11. Towards Human Security: Climate Change and the Military Role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response Andrew DeWit 12. Life after the Triple Disaster: Human Security and the Future Christopher HobsonThis chapter brings a human security lens to bear on the energy-mix question in post-Fukushima Japan. In particular, two of the four elements of human security identified in the 1994 Human Development Report (HDR), prevention and people-centeredness, are mobilized. We trace developments in Japan’s post-Fukushima nuclear politics through the demise of DPJ rule to the advent of the LDP government, and evaluate the current nuclear energy strategy of the Abe administration. Using a human security framework, we consider the economic security dimension of the arguments for and against the use of nuclear power, and weigh the result of this consideration against a concern with the six other elements of human security identified in the 1994 HDR. We conclude that the risks and threats to human security engendered by the use of nuclear energy outweigh any benefits that could reasonably be argued to accrue from its use. The notion of prevention, so central to the concept of human security, performs a further ‘trumping’ function, in leading us to put a premium on the downside risk of the use of nuclear energy.