Localisation and re-offending prevention: The Japanese experience

• In Event: International Criminal Law Making Policies Panel 1

Abstract

In contrast to the relatively devolved forms of local policy making that facilitate diverse crime control cultures in parts of Europe, policy making in Japan has traditionally been characterised by firm centralised command. Nevertheless, in recent years there have been increasing calls for greater collaboration between national and local authorities as well as between public and private organisations to tackle the stubborn rates of re-entry to the criminal justice system.
　　Notably, since the introduction of the Recidivism Prevention Promotion Act in 2017, all 47 prefectures – the upper tier of local government in Japan – have had a statutory responsibility to develop and implement plans to prevent repeat offending (‘Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plans’). Through providing local authorities with enhanced abilities and responsibilities to tailor responses to re-offending problems specific to their locales, this key policy development – at least hypothetically – has opened a space for hitherto marginalised policy actors to meaningfully shape and advance distinctive policy agendas. On these grounds, it may be expected that variation in criminal justice policy is now emerging at a local level in Japan.
　　This paper will consider whether there are any empirical indications that localisation is indeed emerging through drawing upon the results of a text mining analysis of national and prefectural Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plans. Specifically, findings relating to two main points of comparison will be outlined: (1) ‘problematic’ acts, groups, and/or conditions; and (2) types of policy measures and responses. These findings will be discussed in relation to theoretical propositions about ‘multi-centred governance’ – a framework developed from European criminological research – and the opportunities that research on non-Western contexts such as Japan provide for enriching our understandings about the possibilities and constraints of criminal justice policy beyond the central state.

Author

• David Brewster, Tokyo Woman's Christian University