Political Analysis of the New ‘Imprisonment’ Punishment in Japan

• In Event: Prison Working Group: Prison reforms and policies

Abstract

This presentation examines the changes in the Japanese sentencing system through the revision of the Penal Code in 2022. The newly introduced ‘imprisonment’ punishment (kōkin-kei) is a unification of the former two punishments: imprisonment with work (chōeki-kei), which occupies the overwhelming majority of imprisonment, and imprisonment without work (kinko-kei). Policymakers explained that the main aim of the new punishment was to prevent repeated offences. Repeat offences are an important issue in Japanese criminal justice policy because almost half of arrested criminals and more than half of new prison inmates are repeat offenders. However, there is almost no evidence presented in the policymaking process that the new punishment contributes to the prevention of repeat offences. The revision of the Penal Code changed the prison governors’ and officers’ legal responsibility to make prisoners work under the punishment of imprisonment with work into their discretion to make prisoners work or guide them. Based on the principal-agent theory, because the new system induces opportunistic behaviour of prison governors as agents of the public and hidden behaviour of prison officers as street-level bureaucrats, the new punishment decreases the effectiveness of correctional policy, considering the current human resources in the Japanese prison administration. Why was this new form of punishment introduced? This presentation attempts to answer this question by adopting a political science method to focus on the interests of political actors in the process.

Keywords: punishment, imprisonment, sentencing system, Japan

Author

• Shunsuke Kyo, Chukyo University