In 2005, after a series of fatal incidents at Nagoya Prison that raised public suspicion about widespread abuse in the Japanese prison estate, Japan enshrined in law the principle of third-party oversight of penal facilities.<\/p>\n
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Seeking to harness the power of Japan\u2019s civil volunteers\u2019 sector, the parliament copied the Independent Monitoring Boards system that has been in place in England and Wales since 1952.<\/p>\n
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The present article uses the so-called \u201cspiral model\u201d of human rights norm diffusion from the political science literature as a framework to understand the incorporation of this system of prison governance in Japan.<\/p>\n
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Relying on interviews with key lawyers, Ministry of Justice documents, and communications with the United Nations\u2019 Committee against Torture, the article takes stock of the developments since 2005, documenting the positive aspects, albeit still quite few, brought to the Japanese prisoner population by the Boards\u2019 activities, as well as the places where the Japanese system continues to fall short of meeting the standards of its progenitor.<\/p>\n
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The conclusion emerging from this overview is that rather than being a bona fide attempt to further the situation of prisoners, the Boards\u2019 system was incorporated by the Japanese bureaucrats as a way to fend off reproval for the disastrous failings at Nagoya.<\/p>\n
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The article ends on a positive note, however, observing, in line with the spiral model of rights\u2019 norm diffusion, that having once made the tactical concession to introduce the Boards\u2019 system, even if in an empty shell format, Japan\u2019s bureaucracy is expected to be sucked, its kicking and screaming notwithstanding, ever more deeply into a cycle of compromises in favor of prisoners\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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