Human rights in Japan
Encyclopedia
Japan
is a constitutional monarchy
. According to Ministry of Justice
(MOJ) figures, the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau offices and civil liberties volunteers dealt with 359,971 human rights related complaints and 18,786 reports of suspected human rights violations during 2003. Many of these cases were ultimately resolved in the courts.
guarantees equality between the sexes. The percentage of women in full-time jobs grew steadily during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Diet's
passage of the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985 is of some help in securing women's rights, even though the law is a "guideline" and entails no legal penalties for employers who discriminate. The law has, however, been used by women in several court cases seeking equal treatment in such areas as retirement age (see Working women in Japan).
The Japanese criminal justice system
has been criticized on several grounds. Japanese police have the right to detain suspects for a long period. Although torture is rarely reported, this put suspects under psychological pressure to confess. They are detained and interrogated by police for periods which critics regard as unnecessary, though interrogation often induces confession which is later corroborated. In several cases, the courts have acknowledged that confessions were forced and ordered prisoners released. The Japanese courts have had conviction rates that exceeded 99% in the past (but that number has been curtailed in recent history due to changes in Japanese law). In common law countries which practice trial by jury, this is seen as indication that defendants are not receiving a fair trial
. In civil law countries, where a magistrate
decides the verdict, it is common because both the defence and the prosecutor can reliably predict the outcome of the trial. Japan also practices the death penalty which is objected to by the U.N., several prominent NGO's and the European Union
(see Capital punishment in Japan
).
Much controversy focuses on the social and legal treatment of minorities. Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a homogeneous people, minorities do exist, and they often suffer discrimination. The largest indigenous minority are the two to four million hisabetsu buraku
("discriminated communities"), descendants of the outcast communities of feudal Japan. Other such minorities include the Ainu
, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Japan, and the people of Okinawa. Japan also has several hundred thousand native residents of Korean
and Chinese
descent who together with other foreign residents experience varying forms and degrees of discrimination.
by any public officer and cruel punishments," and article 195 of the Penal Code states that public officers who inflict violence on or abuse suspects, accused person or anyone else for the purpose of their official duty including criminal investigation are punishable and article 196 demands that such acts be penalized with a heavier sentence than otherwise. However, reports by Japanese bar associations, human rights groups, and some prisoners indicated such physical abuse often they don't report takes place in regard to the treatment of illegal immigrants. Also, Amnesty International
reports that the use of physical force in the penal system is not uncommon. National Police Law permits persons to lodge complaints against the police with national and local public safety commissions. These commissions may direct the police to conduct investigations.
include safeguards to ensure that no criminal suspect can be compelled to make a self incriminating confession or be convicted or punished in cases where the only evidence against the accused is his own confession. The appellate courts overturned some convictions in recent years on the grounds that they were obtained as a result of coerced confessions. In addition, civil and criminal suits alleging abuse during interrogation
and detention have been brought against some police and prosecution officials. Confession was regarded as the first step in the rehabilitative process. The Government maintained that the high percentage of confessions, like the high conviction rate, reflected a higher standard of evidence
needed to bring about indictment in the judicial system. In 2003, the use of leather restraining body belts was abolished. Softer leather handcuffs without body belts were instituted as substitute restraining devices. Amnesty International has urged Japan to reform its police interrogation methods.
On June 20, 1994, Iranian national Arjang Mehrpooran was beaten to death while in custody for a visa violation at the Minami Senju police station.
On August 9, 1997, Mousavi Abarbe Kouh Mir Hossein, an Iranian national, had his neck broken and died while in the custody of the Kita Ward Immigration Detention Center.
In 2001, two Nagoya prison guards reportedly sprayed a high-power water hose
at an "unruly" inmate's anus, resulting in his death the following day. In the outcome of his March 2003 trial, the warden was warned to prevent further abuses by his subordinates.
In 2002, an inmate at Nagoya Prison died after guards, as a disciplinary measure, used leather handcuffs and body belts too tightly clinched.
On March 22, 2010, Abubaka Awudu Suraj, a citizen of Ghana
, died while in the custody of the Japanese Immigration Bureau while being deported from Japan.
Up to July 2011, Japan has not signed nor ratifid the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
In spite of the MOJ's request in 2001 for installation of heaters in prisons, most facilities remained unheated and without air conditioning. Inmates were not given sufficient clothing and blankets to protect themselves against cold weather, and there continued to be cases of frostbite
among the prison population, particularly in Niigata Prefecture
.
According to prison officials at Fuchu
and Yokohama
prisons, medical attention was inadequate. The MOJ's Corrections Bureau likewise acknowledged that correctional facilities lacked medical preparedness. The Government's Project Team on Medical Issues of Correctional Institutions continued to consult with related organizations on such issues as increasing medical staff, upgrading medical conditions during nights and weekends, and strengthening cooperative relationships with medical institutions in the community. In May, the Minister formed a subcommittee to improve prison medical facilities.
According to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the authorities are permitted to read letters sent or received by prisoners and they are allowed to not inform the prisoners about it. If the content is deemed "inappropriate," the letter may be censor
ed or confiscated. All visits with convicted prisoners were monitored; however, prisoners whose cases were pending were allowed private access to their legal representatives.
The MOJ is not required to inform a condemned inmate's family prior to the person's execution. Human rights organizations reported that lawyers also were not told of an execution until after the fact and that death row prisoners were held for years in solitary confinement with little contact with anyone but prison guards. Parole may not be granted for any reason, including medical and humanitarian reasons, until an inmate has served two-thirds of his or her sentence.
The JFBA and human rights groups have criticized the prison system, with its emphasis on strict discipline and obedience to numerous rules. Prison rules remained confidential. While the Prison Law Enforcement Regulation stipulates that the maximum time prisoners may be held in single cells is 6 months, wardens continued to have broad leeway in enforcing punishments selectively, including "minor solitary confinement," which may be imposed for a minimum of 1 and not more than 60 days. Prisoners were sometimes forced to kneel motionless in an empty cell for several hours at a time; however, foreigners and the handicapped were allowed to sit on a hard stool, at the discretion of the prison warden.
In December, the Upper House
passed both a Crime-Victims law and a revision to the 1908 Prison Law. The Crime-Victims law calls for compensation and counseling for crime victims, upholding victims' rights, and providing victims with criminal investigation information. Aimed at toughening penalties against felons, the Penal Code revision establishes new charges for gang rape, increases maximum prison terms and penalties for life-threatening crimes, and extends the statute of limitations for prosecuting capital offenses from 15 to 25 years.
In February 2003, the government ratified the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, allowing foreign prisoners to petition to serve their sentences in their home country. The government added the stipulation that prisoners must serve at least one-third of their sentence in Japan before petitions will be considered. As of June 2007, 10 American prisoners have been transferred to the United States
to complete their sentences.
Women and juveniles were housed in separate from men; however, male prison guards sometimes guarded women prisoners. During the year, a male prison warden was charged with "violence and cruelty by a special public officer" for engaging in sexual acts with a female inmate awaiting trial. During the year, some women's detention facilities were operating over stated capacity. Pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted prisoners.
While the government limited access by human rights groups to detention facilities, prison visits were allowed. However, Amnesty International
claimed that human rights groups were not allowed access to Nagoya prison because of ongoing court cases related to alleged abuses.
The National Police Safety Commission oversees the National Police Agency
(NPA). In addition, each prefecture has a prefectural police safety commission as well as a prefectural police agency, which was primarily funded by the prefecture's budget. Corruption and impunity were not problems within either the national or the prefectural police forces.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, police and prosecutors have the power to control or limit access by legal counsel when deemed necessary for the sake of an investigation. Counsel may not be present during interrogations at any time before or after indictment. As a court-appointed attorney is not approved until after indictment, suspects must rely on their own resources to hire an attorney before indictment, although local bar associations provided detainees with limited free counseling. Critics charged that access to counsel was limited both in duration and frequency; however, the Government denied that this was the case. Incommunicado detention could be used for up to 23 days.
Critics charged that allowing suspects to be detained by the same authorities who interrogated them heightened the potential for abuse and coercion. The Government countered that cases of persons sent to police detention facilities tended to be those in which the facts were not in dispute. An MOJ regulation permits officials to limit the amount of documentation related to ongoing court cases retained by prisoners.
The Law for Expediting Court Procedure became effective in 2003. The average trial period in 2005 was 3.2 months for criminal cases and 8.2 months for civil cases. The length of time before a suspect was brought to trial depended on the nature of the crime, but rarely exceeded 3 months from the date of arrest; the average was 1 to 2 months.
can serve until the age of 70, but face periodic review through popular referendums.
There are several levels of courts, including high courts, district courts, family courts, and summary courts, with the Supreme Court serving as the final court of appeal. Normally a trial begins at the district court level, and a verdict may be appealed to a higher court, and ultimately, to the Supreme Court. The government generally respected in practice the constitutional provisions for the right to a speedy
and public trial
by an impartial tribunal in all criminal cases. Although most criminal trials were completed within a reasonable length of time, cases occasionally took several years to work their way through the trial and appeals process.
In July 2003, the Diet passed legislation aimed at reducing the average time required to complete criminal trials and civil trials that include witness examination. Its provisions include hiring substantial numbers of additional court and MOJ personnel, revising bar examinations, establishing new graduate law schools to increase the overall number of legal professionals threefold by 2010, and requiring that courts and opposing litigants jointly work to improve trial planning by allowing for earlier evidence collection and disclosure. The advisory panel on judicial reform released the official standards for setting up graduate law schools, and in March 2004, 68 universities (22 public and 46 private) opened new law schools.
The July 2003, law also makes the Supreme Court responsible for accelerating proceedings in lower courts, imposes a 2 year time limit for courts to bring criminal and civil trials to conclusion, and requires the government to take the legal and financial measures necessary to accomplish these goals. A defendant is informed of the charges upon arrest and is assured a public trial by an independent civilian court with defense counsel and the right of cross-examination. There was no trial by jury; however, a judicial reform bill passed in May will allow serious criminal cases to be tried by a six-person, randomly selected jury and panel of judges. The law was scheduled to take effect in 2009.
The defendant is presumed innocent. The Constitution provides defendants with the right not to be compelled to testify against themselves as well as to free and private access to counsel; however, the Government contended that the right to consult with attorneys is not absolute and can be restricted if such restriction is compatible with the spirit of the Constitution. Access sometimes was abridged in practice; for example, the law allows prosecutors to control access to counsel before indictment, and there were allegations of coerced confessions. Defendants are protected from the retroactive application of laws and have the right of access to incriminating evidence after a formal indictment. However, the law does not require full disclosure by prosecutors, and material that the prosecution does not use in court may be suppressed. Critics claimed that legal representatives of defendants did not always have access to all needed relevant material in the police record. A defendant who is dissatisfied with the decision of a trial court of first instance may appeal to a higher court.
No guidelines mandate the acceptable quality of communications between judges, lawyers, and non-Japanese speaking defendants, and no standard licensing or qualification system for certifying court interpreters exists. A trial may proceed even if the accused does not understand what is happening or being said. Foreign detainees frequently claimed that police urged them to sign statements in Japanese that they could not read and were not translated adequately.
Up to July 2011, Japan does not signify nor ratify First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
.
There were no reports of political prisoners.
has been criticised by press freedom groups. The clubs often provide major media outlets with exclusive
access to news sources, while generally barring foreign and freelance reporters. The clubs provide the establishment press with access to official press conferences and background briefings with politicians, lawyers and business leaders. Critics say the club system allows the authorities to suppress news that they consider unfavorable to them and that it lowers the quality of news coverage.
Free speech and press issues include:
and association, and the Government generally respects these rights in practice.
.
Members of the Unification Church
alleged that police did not respond to allegations of forced deprogramming of church members. While deprogramming cases decreased during the year, a Unification Church spokesman reported that prosecutors dropped two cases due to insufficient evidence. Although one member reportedly was kidnapped by her family during the year, the Unification Church did not report the case to police. Concerns remained regarding the tendency of officials to judge deprogramming
as a family matter. Unlike in previous years, Jehovah's Witnesses
reported that their religious rights were respected by the Government during the year.
provides for the freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, immigration, and repatriation, and the Government
generally respects them in practice. Citizens have the right to travel freely both within the country and abroad, to change their place of residence, to emigrate, and to repatriate voluntarily. Citizenship
may be forfeited by naturalization in a foreign country or by failure of persons born with dual nationality to elect citizenship at the required age. The law does not permit forced exile
, and it is not used.
The law provides for the granting of refugee
status or asylum to persons in accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
or its 1967 Protocol. In practice, the government provided protection against refoulement, the return of persons to a country where they feared persecution, but did not routinely grant refugee or asylum status. The Government cooperated with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees.
In May 2003, the Diet passed a bill abolishing the 60-day application deadline previously required for aliens seeking refugee status. The previous refugee recognition law stipulated that those seeking refugee status had to apply within 60 days upon arriving in Japan or within 60 days of learning that they were likely to be persecuted in their home country. An alien recognized as a refugee has access to educational facilities, public relief and aid, and social welfare benefits.
Government records indicated that 523,617 persons were detained in 2003 at immigration detention centers. According to media reports, several deportations were carried out in secret. In July, two Kurdish families staged a 72-day protest against their deportation orders in front of the United Nations University
in Tokyo.
As of 2005, the government has granted refugee and asylum status to those claiming fear of persecution in only a small number of cases. A nongovernmental organization (NGO), in a statement to the U.N. Subcommission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, noted that, from 1982 to December 2002, 301 persons were accepted as refugees. The Government considered that most persons seeking asylum in the country did so for economic reasons. In 2003, there were approximately 7,900 refugees and asylum seekers in the country, of whom an estimated 7,700 were Vietnam
ese and Cambodia
n refugees. Out of 336 refugee claims submitted in 2003, the Government granted asylum to 10 persons from Burma
, Burundi
, and Iran
and issued long-term residence permits based on humanitarian considerations to 16. As part of its ongoing family-reunification program for close relatives of Indochinese refugees resettled in earlier years, the Government admitted 147 refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia in 2003.
In May 2003, a law was passed granting the Justice Minister
authority to issue temporary-stay permits to persons seeking asylum. While this law provides a way for asylum seekers to have legal status in the country during the refugee recognition process, in practice it was quite difficult to obtain such permits. In January 2003, the Immigration Bureau began to give detailed, written explanations of decisions not to grant refugee status to asylum-seekers and opened an information office at Narita Airport
for potential asylum seekers.
held on the basis of universal suffrage
. The country is a parliamentary democracy governed by the political party or parties able to form a majority in the lower house of its bicameral Diet
. The LDP
and the New Komeito Party
formed the existing coalition government. Except for a brief hiatus in the 1990s, the LDP has been the dominant party in every government since the mid-1950s. The last general elections were held in on September 11, 2005, and elections for the Upper House
were held in July 2003.
According to National Police Agency
figures for January through June 2003, there were 43 arrests involving political corruption for such charges as bribery, bid-rigging, and violation of the Political Funds Control Law. This was an increase of 14 cases from the previous year for the same time period. In recent years, the numbers of women holding public office has slowly increased. As of July 2003, women held 34 of 480 seats in the Lower House of the Diet and 33 seats in the 242-seat Upper House. As of September 2003, there were two women in the Cabinet
. As of April 2003, 4 of the country's 47 governors were women.
on the basis of race, creed, gender
, social status, or family origin, and the Government generally respects these provisions.
Violence against women, particularly domestic violence
, often went unreported due to social and cultural concerns about shaming one's family or endangering the reputation of one's spouse or children. Kentucky NPA statistics on violence against women probably understated the magnitude of the problem. According to NPA statistics, there were 12,568 cases of alleged domestic violence and 1,499 restraining orders issued in 2003. Police took action in 41 cases in which court orders were violated. Between April and September, the 120 preferential consultation centers received 24,818 cases of domestic violence consultations. Of the total 103,986 consultations since fiscal 2002, 99.6% were for women.
The law allows district courts to impose 6-month restraining orders on perpetrators of domestic violence and to sentence violators up to 1 year in prison or impose fines of up to 1 million yen. According to Supreme Court
figures from January through September 2003, 1,579 applications for restraining orders against abusive spouses were sought, and 1,256 were issued. The orders either banned perpetrators from approaching their victims or ordered them to move away from the home, or both. The law also covers common-law marriages and divorced individuals; it also encourages prefectures to expand shelter facilities for domestic abuse victims and stipulates that local governments offer financial assistance to 40 private institutions already operating such shelters.
The revision to the Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims passed in May expanded the definition of spousal violence to include mental, sexual, and physical abuse and increased the length of restraining orders from 2 weeks to 2 months.
NPA statistics reported 2,472 rapes in 2003. Husbands have been prosecuted for spousal rape; usually these cases involved a third party who assisted in the rape. In light of several high-profile gang rapes in 2003 involving college students at Waseda University, the Upper House passed a bill in December making gang rape an offense punishable by a minimum penalty of 4 years in prison. In November 2004, a former student was sentenced to 14 years in prison for raping two women at a party organized by the "Super Free
" student group, as well as a third woman in December 2001. All 13 other defendants received jail sentences of up to 10 years. Many local governments responded to the need for confidential assistance for abused women by establishing special women's consultation departments in police and prefectural offices.
Local governments and private rail operators continued to implement measures designed to address the widespread problem of groping and molestation of female commuters. Several railway companies have introduced women-only rail cars on various trains, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly revised its anti-groping ordinance to make first-time offenders subject to imprisonment.
The Constitution and the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Law aims to prohibit sexual discrimination; however, sexual harassment in the workplace remained widespread. The National Personnel Authority established workplace rules in an effort to stop harassment in public servants' workplaces. A 1999 revision to the EEO Law includes measures to identify companies that fail to prevent sexual harassment, but it does not include punitive measures to enforce compliance, other than allowing names of offending companies to be publicized. A number of government entities have established hotlines and designated ombudsmen to handle complaints of discrimination and sexual harassment
.
Up to August 2011, Japan does not ratify the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention by ILO.
Women made up 40.5% of the labor force, and women between the ages of 15 and 64 had a labor force participation rate of 48.5%. Although the Labor Standards and the EEO laws prohibit wage discrimination, in 2003, the average hourly wage for women was only 67.8% of the hourly wage for men. There was a significant salary income gap between men and women in 2003, with 64% of female employees earning 3 million yen or less per year, as compared with 18% of all male employees, according to Cabinet Office statistics. Much of this disparity resulted from the "two-track" personnel administration system found in most larger companies under which new hires were put either in the managerial track (for those perceived as having executive potential) or the general track (for those engaged in basic office work).
Up to July 2011, Japan does not signify nor ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
.
Advocacy groups for women and persons with disabilities continued to press for a government investigation, a formal government apology, and compensation for sterilizations that were carried out between 1949-92.
Several cases filed by women forced to work as "comfort women
" (prostitutes) during World War II were finalized during the year. In February, the Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by 7 Taiwanese former "comfort women," while in November the Supreme Court dismissed a damage suit filed in 1991 by 35 Korean wartime "comfort women." In December, the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal by 4 Chinese former "comfort women," and the Supreme Court rejected a suit filed in 1993 by 46 Filipina wartime "comfort women."
and other public services. Education
is mostly free and compulsory
through the lower secondary level (age 14 or ninth grade
). Education was available widely to students who met minimum academic standards at the upper secondary level through the age of 18. Society places an extremely high value on education, and enrollment levels for both boys and girls through the free upper secondary level exceeded 96%.
Public attention was focused increasingly on reports of frequent child abuse
in the home. The law grants child welfare
officials the authority to prohibit abusive parents from meeting or communicating with their children, although due to Japanese cultural views on family matters being "private", this enforcement option is rarely exercised. The law also bans abuse under the guise of discipline
and obliges teachers, doctors, and welfare officials to report any suspicious circumstances to 1 of the 182 nationwide local child counseling centers or to a municipal welfare center. In May 2003, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reported that 108 children died as a result of child abuse since the enactment of the Child Abuse Prevention Law in 2000. In 2003, there were a record 23,738 cases of child abuse, up almost 2% from 2002, according to the Cabinet Office. Approximately 50% of the cases involved violence
, and 40% were cases of parental neglect
. Child welfare centers likewise reported a record 26,573 calls in 2003, an increase of 2,800 calls from the previous year. Generally accepted statistics indicate that upwards of 70% of child abuse cases involve a female perpetrator, usually the child's mother
, demonstrating that violence and abuse is not a gender-specific phenomenon. Although the Government offered subsidies to local governments to combat record-high child abuse, only 13% accepted the offer. Most of the local governments declining the subsidies stated they could not afford to pay their share of the bill.
Incidents of violence in schools, severe bullying ("ijime") and bullycide
also continued to be a societal and government concern. According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, public elementary school
children committed a record 1,777 violent acts in the 2003 academic year, an increase of 27% from the previous school year, including acts of violence committed both on and off school grounds. In all 35,392 violent acts were committed in public elementary, junior high, and high school
s during the 2003 academic year. Overall, cases of bullying rose 5.2%.
Student-on-student violence accounted for 50% of the violence by students in public schools. In June, a sixth grade
r murdered her classmate, and a junior high school student pushed a 5-year-old boy off the fourth floor of an apartment building. The MOJ's Office of the Ombudsman for Children's Rights provided counseling services for children 18 years of age and younger who had been victims of bullying. In May, a High Court overturned a 2002 lower court ruling and ordered seven persons to pay a total 57.6 million yen to parents of a 13-year-old boy killed in a bullying incident in 1993.
Teenage prostitution, dating for money, and child pornography
continued to be problems. According to the Cabinet Office's white paper, there were 722 sex-related crimes associated with dating sites during the year. Easy access to web sites through mobile phones with Internet access made it easier for strangers to set up encounters with juveniles. In July 2003, the Diet passed a law criminalizing the use of the Internet for child pornography and prostitution.
Children under the age of 14 cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions. Under juvenile law
, juvenile suspects are tried in family court and have the right of appeal to an appellate court. Family court
proceedings are not open to the public, a policy that has been criticized by family members of juvenile crime victims. For the last several years, juvenile crime has shown a trend toward more serious offenses such as murder
, robbery
, arson
, and rape
. The Tokyo
prefectural government continued programs to protect the welfare of stateless children, whose births their illegal immigrant mothers had refused to register for fear of forcible repatriation
.
. In April, the government created a senior coordinator presiding over an inter-ministerial committee for anti-trafficking efforts. In December, the Government released its Action Plan to combat trafficking in persons. Focusing on prevention, prosecution, and protection of trafficking victims, the Action Plan calls for a review of "entertainer" visas, strengthened immigration control, revision of the penal code to make trafficking in persons a crime, and added protection of victims through shelters, counseling, and repatriation assistance.
and forced labour. Women and girls from Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia also were trafficked into the country in smaller numbers. The country was a destination for illegal immigrants from China who were trafficked by organized crime groups and held in debt bondage for sexual exploitation and indentured servitude in sweatshops and restaurants. The Government reported that some smugglers used killings and abduction to enforce cooperation.
Although reliable statistics on the number of women trafficked to the country were unavailable, human rights groups reported that up to 200,000 persons, mostly Southeast Asian women, are smuggled annually into the country and forced to work in the sex industry. In 2003, the NPA arrested 41 individuals for trafficking-related offenses, 8 of whom were traffickers. Of these individuals, 36 were convicted, 14 received prison terms, 17 received fines, and 5 received both a fine and prison term. In February 2003, 17 prefecture police offices and the Tokyo Metropolitan police simultaneously raided 24 strip clubs and rescued 68 trafficking victims. The NPA also participated in 16 transnational investigations. During the year, efforts were underway to improve screening of travelers arriving in Japan from key source countries of trafficking and to tighten the issuance of "entertainer" visas, which are often used by traffickers.
The government does not consider an individual who has willingly entered into an agreement to work illegally in the country to be a trafficking victim, regardless of that person's working conditions. Thus, government figures may understate the problem, as persons who agreed to one kind of work found themselves doing another, or were subject to force, fraud, or coercion.
Traffickers were prosecuted for crimes ranging from violations of employment law to immigration violations. A government-funded study released in 2000 found that nearly two-thirds of foreign women surveyed following arrests for immigration offenses reported that they were working in the sex industry under duress. Many women who were trafficked into the country, particularly from the Philippines, entered legally on entertainment visas. "Entertainers" are not covered by the Labor Standards Law and have no minimum wage protections. Brokers in the countries of origin recruited women and "sold" them to intermediaries, who in turn subjected them to debt bondage and coercion. Agents, brokers, and employers involved in trafficking for sexual exploitation often had ties to organized crime.
Women trafficked to the country generally were employed as prostitutes under coercive conditions in businesses licensed to provide commercial sex services. Sex entertainment businesses are classified as "store form" businesses such as strip clubs, sex shops, hostess bars, and private video rooms, and as "nonstore form" businesses such as escort services and mail order video services, which arrange for sexual services to be conducted elsewhere. According to NGOs and other credible sources, most women who were trafficked to the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation were employed as hostesses in "snack" bars, where they were required to provide sexual services off-premises.
Trafficking victims generally did not realize the extent of their indebtedness, the amount of time it would take them to repay the debts, or the conditions of employment they would be subjected to upon arrival. According to Human Rights Watch, the passports of women trafficked to work in "dating" bars usually were confiscated by their employers, who also demanded repayment for the cost of the woman's "purchase." Typically, the women were charged 3 to 5 million yen, their living expenses, medical care (when provided by the employer) and other necessities, as well as "fines" for misbehavior added to the original "debt" over time. How the debt was calculated was left to the employers; the process was not transparent, and the employers reportedly often used the debt to coerce additional unpaid labor from the trafficked women. Employers also sometimes "resold," or threatened to resell, troublesome women or women found to be HIV positive, thereby increasing their debt and possibly worsening their working conditions.
Many women trafficked into the sex trade had their movements strictly controlled by their employers and were threatened with reprisals, perhaps through members of organized crime groups, to themselves or their families if they tried to escape. Employers often isolated the women, subjected them to constant surveillance, and used violence to punish them for disobedience. There were reports that some brokers used drugs to subjugate victims. Many trafficked women also knew that they were subject to arrest if found without their passports or other identification documents. Few spoke Japanese well, making escape even more difficult.
Domestic NGOs and lawyers compiled credible anecdotal evidence suggesting that some individual police officials returned trafficking victims to their employers when these individuals sought police protection. NGOs also reported that police sometimes declined to investigate suspected brokers when presented with information obtained from trafficking victims.
Except for the Tokyo Metropolitan and Kanagawa Prefectural Government, which funded locally based NGOs assisting victims of trafficking, the Government did not assist victims of trafficking other than to house them temporarily in detention centers for illegal immigrants or facilities established under the Anti-prostitution Law, or by referral to shelters run by NGOs. Generally these trafficking victims were deported as illegal aliens. During the year, the Government administratively decided not to treat victims as immediately deportable criminals, allowing the Government to develop its cases against traffickers. Victims without documentation or sufficient funds to return to their country of origin were sometimes detained for long periods. Several NGOs throughout the country provided shelter, medical aid, and legal assistance to trafficking victims.
During the year, government officials met with destination-country officials and participated in a Southeast Asian study tour to research trafficking issues. The Government has instituted tighter entertainer visa issuance and intends to cut the number of such visas issued to women from the Philippines from 80,000 to 8,000 a year. In 2003, the Cabinet Affairs Office conducted a campaign to heighten public awareness of violence against women and trafficking, while the NPA produced a training video on trafficking and distributed it to all police offices to improve their awareness of trafficking. In 2003, the Government disbursed 315 million yen to UNICEF, the International Labour Organization
(ILO), the United Nations Development Programme
, and the Philippine government to alleviate poverty, raise awareness of the dangers of trafficking, and promote alternative economic opportunities for women.
, which operates within the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, has mandated that private companies with 300 or more employees hire a fixed minimum proportion of persons with disabilities. The penalty for noncompliance is a fine.
The law does not mandate accessibility to buildings for persons with disabilities; however, the law on construction standards for public facilities allows operators of hospitals, theaters, hotels, and similar enterprises to receive low-interest loans and tax benefits if they build wider entrances and elevators to accommodate persons with disabilities.
The Law to Promote the Employment of the Handicapped includes those with mental disabilities. The law also loosened the licensing requirements for community support centers that promote employment for persons with disabilities, and it introduced government subsidies for the employment of persons with mental disabilities in part-time jobs. In 2003, workers with disabilities employed by private companies comprised on average 1.5% of the total number of regular employees, somewhat less than the legally stipulated rate of 1.8%. While nearly 70% of large corporations (1,000 or more employees) fell short of this goal, several large corporations had special divisions for workers with disabilities, including Omron
, Sony
, and Honda
. For example, 80% of Omron's Kyoto factory staff of 82 had disabilities, with the majority having severe disabilities. These employees earn an average of 3 million yen per year, which is above the minimum wage.
At the end of 2002, all prefectural governments and 91.5% of local city governments had developed basic plans for citizens with disabilities. In June, the Disabled Persons Fundamental Law was revised, obligating all municipalities to draw up formal plans for the disabled.
Up to July 2011, Japan has signed yet not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
.
, Koreans, Chinese, and alien workers experienced varying degrees of societal discrimination, some of it severe and longstanding. The approximately 3 million Burakumin (descendants of feudal era "outcasts"), although not subject to governmental discrimination, frequently were victims of entrenched societal discrimination, including restricted access to housing and employment opportunities.
According to the MOJ
, there were nearly 1.85 million legal foreign residents as of 2002. The largest group, at approximately 625,400, was ethnic Koreans, followed by Chinese
, Brazil
ians, and Filipinos
. Despite improvements in legal safeguards against discrimination, Korean permanent residents (so-called Zainichi Korean
s, most of whom were born, raised, and educated in Japan) were subject to various forms of deeply entrenched societal discrimination. Harassment and threats against pro-North Korea
n organizations and persons reportedly have increased since the 2002 admission by North Korea that it had kidnapped more than a dozen Japanese citizens
. Other foreigners also were subject to discrimination. There was a widespread perception among Japanese citizens that foreigners committed many crimes
. According to a government survey, more than 70% of citizens worried that an increase in the number of illegally employed foreign workers could undermine public safety and result in human rights abuses against the workers themselves. Nevertheless, more than 80% said the country should accept foreign laborers conditionally or unconditionally.
A controversial Immigration Bureau website launched in February allows informants to report the name, address, or workplace of any suspicious foreigners for such reasons as "causing a nuisance in the neighborhood" and "causing anxiety." In the face of protests from human rights groups, the site was amended in March to remove the preset reasons, but remained operational at year's end.
By law, aliens with 5 years of continuous residence are eligible for naturalization and citizenship rights, including the right to vote; however, in practice, most eligible aliens choose not to apply for citizenship, partly due to fears that their cultural identity would be lost. Obstacles to naturalization included broad discretion available to adjudicating officers and great emphasis on Japanese-language
ability. Naturalization procedures also required an extensive background check, including inquiries into the applicant's economic status and assimilation into society. Koreans were given the option of adopting a Japanese surname. The Government defended its naturalization procedures as necessary to ensure the smooth assimilation of foreigners into society. Alien permanent residents may live abroad for up to 4 or 5 years without losing their right to permanent residence in the country.
In September 2003, the School Education Law was amended to allow graduates of 21 non Japanese language schools to become automatically eligible to take university entrance examinations. Previously all students of non-Japanese language schools were required to pass a state-run high school equivalency test to qualify for the examinations. The amended law also enabled universities to set their admissions criteria at their own discretion. During 2003, many national universities also admitted graduates of non-Japanese language schools other than the 21 schools included in the School Education Law amendment.
are people descended from the first inhabitants of the country. Under an 1899 law, the Government pursued a policy of forced assimilation, imposing mandatory Japanese-language education and denying the Ainu their right to continue traditional practices. The law also left the Ainu with control of approximately 0.15% of their original land holdings and empowered the Government to manage communal assets.
After a 1997 court ruling, the Diet passed a law that recognized the Ainu as an ethnic minority, required all prefectural governments to develop basic programs for promoting Ainu culture and traditions, canceled previous laws that discriminated against the Ainu, and required the Government of Hokkaidō to return Ainu communal assets. However, the law stopped short of recognizing the Ainu as the indigenous people of Hokkaidō, failed to address whether they deserved special rights as a distinct ethnic group, and did not mandate civil rights protection for the Ainu. A nonbinding accompanying resolution referred to the Ainu as a legal minority. The United Nations Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations stated that the Ainu never had entered into a consensual juridical relationship with any state and noted that the lack of such an agreement deprived them of their rights. Many Ainu criticized the Law to Promote Ainu Culture for not advancing Ainu political rights and criticized the Government for not providing funds for noncultural activities that would improve Ainu living conditions or financial status. The Japan Ainu Association, a nationwide organization of Ainu, lobbied the Government for economic assistance and greater social welfare benefits. Although Ainu-language newspapers, radio programs, and academic programs studying Ainu culture have increased, the Ainu continued to face societal discrimination.
. In 2003, approximately 10.5 million workers, 19.6% of all employees, belonged to labor unions. Unions were free of government control and influence. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation
, which represented 6.8 million workers and was formed in 1989 through the merger of several confederations, was the largest labor organization.
Some public employees, including members of the Self-Defense Forces, police
, and firefighter
s are not permitted to form unions or to strike. These restrictions have led to a long-running dispute with the ILO Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations over the observance of ILO Convention 98 concerning the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Committee has observed that these public employees have a limited capacity to participate in the process of determining their wages and has asked the Government to consider measures it could take to encourage negotiations with public employees. The Government determines the pay of government employees based on a recommendation by the independent National Personnel Authority
.
Former Allied prisoners of war and Chinese and Korean workers continued to press claims in Japanese civil courts and in complaints to the ILO for damages and compensation for forced labor during World War II. In 2004, the United State Supreme Court rejected appeals from former prisoners of war and others who claimed they were forced to work for private Japanese companies as slave laborers during World War II. In July, overturning a district court's 2002 decision against Chinese plaintiffs, a high court ordered Nishimatsu Construction Company to pay 27.5 million yen in compensation to a group of World War II slave laborers. In January 2003, a U.S. federal appeals court dismissed a number of lawsuits by former prisoners of war and civilians who alleged they had been forced to labor for private Japanese firms during World War II.
Japan has ratified the ILO Convention on Forced Labour No. 29 in 1932, yet up to july 2011 still has not ratified Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105.
s are set on a regional (prefectural) and industry basis, with the input of tripartite (workers, employers, public interest) advisory councils. Employers covered by a minimum wage must post the concerned minimum wages, and compliance with minimum wages was considered widespread. Minimum wage rates ranged according to prefecture from 606 to 710 yen per hour. Minimum wage rates were considered sufficient to provide a worker and family with a decent standard of living
.
The Labor Standards Law provides for a 40-hour workweek for most industries and mandates premium pay for hours worked over 40 in a week, or 8 in a day. However, labor unions frequently criticized the government for failing to enforce maximum working hour regulations in smaller firms. Activist groups claimed that employers exploited or discriminated against foreign workers, who often had little or no knowledge of the Japanese language or their legal rights. The Immigration Bureau of the MOJ estimated that, as of January, there were more than 200,000 foreign nationals, primarily from South Korea, the Philippines, China, Thailand, and Malaysia, residing illegally in the country, with the majority of them engaged in manual labor.
The government tried to reduce the inflow of illegal foreign workers by prosecuting employers of such workers. According to NPA figures, 175 persons were charged with "illegal employment assistance" during the first half of 2002. The Immigration Law
provides for penalties against employers of undocumented foreign workers. Maximum fines for illegal employment assistance were raised to 3 million yen in December. Suspected foreign workers also may be denied entry for passport, visa, and entry application irregularities. The Government continued to study the foreign worker issue, and several citizens' groups were working with illegal foreign workers to improve their access to information on worker rights.
The Ministry of Labor
effectively administered various laws and regulations governing occupational health and safety, principal among which is the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Standards were set by the Ministry of Labor and issued after consultation with the Standing Committee on Safety and Health of the Central Labor Standards Council. Labor inspectors have the authority to suspend unsafe operations immediately, and the law provides that workers may voice concerns over occupational safety and remove themselves from unsafe working conditions without jeopardizing their continued employment.
International:
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
is a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
. According to Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (Japan)
The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
(MOJ) figures, the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau offices and civil liberties volunteers dealt with 359,971 human rights related complaints and 18,786 reports of suspected human rights violations during 2003. Many of these cases were ultimately resolved in the courts.
Major issues
Article 14 of the Japanese ConstitutionConstitution of Japan
The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...
guarantees equality between the sexes. The percentage of women in full-time jobs grew steadily during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Diet's
Diet of Japan
The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...
passage of the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985 is of some help in securing women's rights, even though the law is a "guideline" and entails no legal penalties for employers who discriminate. The law has, however, been used by women in several court cases seeking equal treatment in such areas as retirement age (see Working women in Japan).
The Japanese criminal justice system
Criminal justice system of Japan
Three basic features of Japan's system of criminal justice characterize its operations. First, the institutions—police, government prosecutor's offices, courts, and correctional organs—maintain close and cooperative relations with each other, consulting frequently on how best to accomplish the...
has been criticized on several grounds. Japanese police have the right to detain suspects for a long period. Although torture is rarely reported, this put suspects under psychological pressure to confess. They are detained and interrogated by police for periods which critics regard as unnecessary, though interrogation often induces confession which is later corroborated. In several cases, the courts have acknowledged that confessions were forced and ordered prisoners released. The Japanese courts have had conviction rates that exceeded 99% in the past (but that number has been curtailed in recent history due to changes in Japanese law). In common law countries which practice trial by jury, this is seen as indication that defendants are not receiving a fair trial
Fair Trial
Fair Trial was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and Champion sire. He was bred and raced by John Arthur Dewar who also bred and raced Tudor Minstrel....
. In civil law countries, where a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
decides the verdict, it is common because both the defence and the prosecutor can reliably predict the outcome of the trial. Japan also practices the death penalty which is objected to by the U.N., several prominent NGO's and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(see Capital punishment in Japan
Capital punishment in Japan
Capital punishment is legal in Japan. The only crimes for which capital punishment is statutory are homicide and treason. Between 1946 and 1993, Japanese courts sentenced 766 people to death , 608 of whom were executed...
).
Much controversy focuses on the social and legal treatment of minorities. Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a homogeneous people, minorities do exist, and they often suffer discrimination. The largest indigenous minority are the two to four million hisabetsu buraku
Burakumin
are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent....
("discriminated communities"), descendants of the outcast communities of feudal Japan. Other such minorities include the Ainu
Ainu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Japan, and the people of Okinawa. Japan also has several hundred thousand native residents of Korean
Korean people
The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...
and Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
descent who together with other foreign residents experience varying forms and degrees of discrimination.
Criminal punishment
Article 36 of the Constitution forbids "the infliction of tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
by any public officer and cruel punishments," and article 195 of the Penal Code states that public officers who inflict violence on or abuse suspects, accused person or anyone else for the purpose of their official duty including criminal investigation are punishable and article 196 demands that such acts be penalized with a heavier sentence than otherwise. However, reports by Japanese bar associations, human rights groups, and some prisoners indicated such physical abuse often they don't report takes place in regard to the treatment of illegal immigrants. Also, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
reports that the use of physical force in the penal system is not uncommon. National Police Law permits persons to lodge complaints against the police with national and local public safety commissions. These commissions may direct the police to conduct investigations.
Confessions
The Constitution and the Criminal CodeCriminal Code of Japan
The Penal Code of Japan was passed in 1907 as Law No. 45. It is one of the Six Codes that form the foundation of Japanese law.- External links :* - Japanese Ministry of Justice...
include safeguards to ensure that no criminal suspect can be compelled to make a self incriminating confession or be convicted or punished in cases where the only evidence against the accused is his own confession. The appellate courts overturned some convictions in recent years on the grounds that they were obtained as a result of coerced confessions. In addition, civil and criminal suits alleging abuse during interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
and detention have been brought against some police and prosecution officials. Confession was regarded as the first step in the rehabilitative process. The Government maintained that the high percentage of confessions, like the high conviction rate, reflected a higher standard of evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
needed to bring about indictment in the judicial system. In 2003, the use of leather restraining body belts was abolished. Softer leather handcuffs without body belts were instituted as substitute restraining devices. Amnesty International has urged Japan to reform its police interrogation methods.
Deaths of prisoners
Prisoners in Japan have died under suspicious circumstances while in custody.On June 20, 1994, Iranian national Arjang Mehrpooran was beaten to death while in custody for a visa violation at the Minami Senju police station.
On August 9, 1997, Mousavi Abarbe Kouh Mir Hossein, an Iranian national, had his neck broken and died while in the custody of the Kita Ward Immigration Detention Center.
In 2001, two Nagoya prison guards reportedly sprayed a high-power water hose
Hose (tubing)
A hose is a hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called pipes , or more generally tubing...
at an "unruly" inmate's anus, resulting in his death the following day. In the outcome of his March 2003 trial, the warden was warned to prevent further abuses by his subordinates.
In 2002, an inmate at Nagoya Prison died after guards, as a disciplinary measure, used leather handcuffs and body belts too tightly clinched.
On March 22, 2010, Abubaka Awudu Suraj, a citizen of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, died while in the custody of the Japanese Immigration Bureau while being deported from Japan.
Up to July 2011, Japan has not signed nor ratifid the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Prison system
Prison conditions met international standards; however, several facilities were overcrowded, unheated, and medically understaffed. Prisoners were not allowed to purchase or receive supplementary food. While death records are kept for 10 years, many of them lacked detailed explanations regarding the cause of death. The prison deaths and abuses made public in 2003 have sparked an ongoing review of the prison system. Prisons operated at an average 117% capacity. In some institutions, two inmates were placed in cells designed for one inmate, and thirty or sixty in cells meant for 15.In spite of the MOJ's request in 2001 for installation of heaters in prisons, most facilities remained unheated and without air conditioning. Inmates were not given sufficient clothing and blankets to protect themselves against cold weather, and there continued to be cases of frostbite
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
among the prison population, particularly in Niigata Prefecture
Niigata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...
.
According to prison officials at Fuchu
Fuchu
is the name of several places in Japan:*Fuchū, Tokyo, a city in Tokyo Metropolis*Fuchū, Hiroshima, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture*Fuchū, Hiroshima , a town in Hiroshima Prefecture*Fuchū-shuku, a former post station on the Tōkaidō...
and Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
prisons, medical attention was inadequate. The MOJ's Corrections Bureau likewise acknowledged that correctional facilities lacked medical preparedness. The Government's Project Team on Medical Issues of Correctional Institutions continued to consult with related organizations on such issues as increasing medical staff, upgrading medical conditions during nights and weekends, and strengthening cooperative relationships with medical institutions in the community. In May, the Minister formed a subcommittee to improve prison medical facilities.
According to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the authorities are permitted to read letters sent or received by prisoners and they are allowed to not inform the prisoners about it. If the content is deemed "inappropriate," the letter may be censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
ed or confiscated. All visits with convicted prisoners were monitored; however, prisoners whose cases were pending were allowed private access to their legal representatives.
The MOJ is not required to inform a condemned inmate's family prior to the person's execution. Human rights organizations reported that lawyers also were not told of an execution until after the fact and that death row prisoners were held for years in solitary confinement with little contact with anyone but prison guards. Parole may not be granted for any reason, including medical and humanitarian reasons, until an inmate has served two-thirds of his or her sentence.
The JFBA and human rights groups have criticized the prison system, with its emphasis on strict discipline and obedience to numerous rules. Prison rules remained confidential. While the Prison Law Enforcement Regulation stipulates that the maximum time prisoners may be held in single cells is 6 months, wardens continued to have broad leeway in enforcing punishments selectively, including "minor solitary confinement," which may be imposed for a minimum of 1 and not more than 60 days. Prisoners were sometimes forced to kneel motionless in an empty cell for several hours at a time; however, foreigners and the handicapped were allowed to sit on a hard stool, at the discretion of the prison warden.
In December, the Upper House
House of Councillors
The is the upper house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or designation of the prime minister, the House of Representatives...
passed both a Crime-Victims law and a revision to the 1908 Prison Law. The Crime-Victims law calls for compensation and counseling for crime victims, upholding victims' rights, and providing victims with criminal investigation information. Aimed at toughening penalties against felons, the Penal Code revision establishes new charges for gang rape, increases maximum prison terms and penalties for life-threatening crimes, and extends the statute of limitations for prosecuting capital offenses from 15 to 25 years.
In February 2003, the government ratified the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, allowing foreign prisoners to petition to serve their sentences in their home country. The government added the stipulation that prisoners must serve at least one-third of their sentence in Japan before petitions will be considered. As of June 2007, 10 American prisoners have been transferred to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to complete their sentences.
Women and juveniles were housed in separate from men; however, male prison guards sometimes guarded women prisoners. During the year, a male prison warden was charged with "violence and cruelty by a special public officer" for engaging in sexual acts with a female inmate awaiting trial. During the year, some women's detention facilities were operating over stated capacity. Pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted prisoners.
While the government limited access by human rights groups to detention facilities, prison visits were allowed. However, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
claimed that human rights groups were not allowed access to Nagoya prison because of ongoing court cases related to alleged abuses.
Arbitrary arrest or detention
The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observes these prohibitions. The law provides for judicial determination of the legality of detention. Persons may not be detained without charge, and prosecuting authorities must be prepared to demonstrate that probable cause exists to detain the accused. Under the law, a suspect may be held in detention at either a regular detention facility or "substitute" (police) detention facility for up to 72 hours. A judge must interview suspects prior to detention. A judge may extend preindictment custody by up to two consecutive 10 day periods based on a prosecutor's application. These extensions were sought and granted routinely. Under extraordinary circumstances, prosecutors may seek an additional 5-day extension, bringing the maximum period of preindictment custody to 28 days.The National Police Safety Commission oversees the National Police Agency
National Police Agency (Japan)
The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....
(NPA). In addition, each prefecture has a prefectural police safety commission as well as a prefectural police agency, which was primarily funded by the prefecture's budget. Corruption and impunity were not problems within either the national or the prefectural police forces.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, police and prosecutors have the power to control or limit access by legal counsel when deemed necessary for the sake of an investigation. Counsel may not be present during interrogations at any time before or after indictment. As a court-appointed attorney is not approved until after indictment, suspects must rely on their own resources to hire an attorney before indictment, although local bar associations provided detainees with limited free counseling. Critics charged that access to counsel was limited both in duration and frequency; however, the Government denied that this was the case. Incommunicado detention could be used for up to 23 days.
Critics charged that allowing suspects to be detained by the same authorities who interrogated them heightened the potential for abuse and coercion. The Government countered that cases of persons sent to police detention facilities tended to be those in which the facts were not in dispute. An MOJ regulation permits officials to limit the amount of documentation related to ongoing court cases retained by prisoners.
The Law for Expediting Court Procedure became effective in 2003. The average trial period in 2005 was 3.2 months for criminal cases and 8.2 months for civil cases. The length of time before a suspect was brought to trial depended on the nature of the crime, but rarely exceeded 3 months from the date of arrest; the average was 1 to 2 months.
Denial of fair public trial
The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected this provision in practice. The Cabinet appoints judges for 10-year terms, which can be renewed until judges reach the age of 65. Justices of the Supreme CourtSupreme Court of Japan
The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...
can serve until the age of 70, but face periodic review through popular referendums.
There are several levels of courts, including high courts, district courts, family courts, and summary courts, with the Supreme Court serving as the final court of appeal. Normally a trial begins at the district court level, and a verdict may be appealed to a higher court, and ultimately, to the Supreme Court. The government generally respected in practice the constitutional provisions for the right to a speedy
Speedy trial
Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy incarceration prior to a fair...
and public trial
Public trial
Public trial or open trial is a trial open to public, as opposed to the secret trial. The term should not be confused with show trial.-United States:...
by an impartial tribunal in all criminal cases. Although most criminal trials were completed within a reasonable length of time, cases occasionally took several years to work their way through the trial and appeals process.
In July 2003, the Diet passed legislation aimed at reducing the average time required to complete criminal trials and civil trials that include witness examination. Its provisions include hiring substantial numbers of additional court and MOJ personnel, revising bar examinations, establishing new graduate law schools to increase the overall number of legal professionals threefold by 2010, and requiring that courts and opposing litigants jointly work to improve trial planning by allowing for earlier evidence collection and disclosure. The advisory panel on judicial reform released the official standards for setting up graduate law schools, and in March 2004, 68 universities (22 public and 46 private) opened new law schools.
The July 2003, law also makes the Supreme Court responsible for accelerating proceedings in lower courts, imposes a 2 year time limit for courts to bring criminal and civil trials to conclusion, and requires the government to take the legal and financial measures necessary to accomplish these goals. A defendant is informed of the charges upon arrest and is assured a public trial by an independent civilian court with defense counsel and the right of cross-examination. There was no trial by jury; however, a judicial reform bill passed in May will allow serious criminal cases to be tried by a six-person, randomly selected jury and panel of judges. The law was scheduled to take effect in 2009.
The defendant is presumed innocent. The Constitution provides defendants with the right not to be compelled to testify against themselves as well as to free and private access to counsel; however, the Government contended that the right to consult with attorneys is not absolute and can be restricted if such restriction is compatible with the spirit of the Constitution. Access sometimes was abridged in practice; for example, the law allows prosecutors to control access to counsel before indictment, and there were allegations of coerced confessions. Defendants are protected from the retroactive application of laws and have the right of access to incriminating evidence after a formal indictment. However, the law does not require full disclosure by prosecutors, and material that the prosecution does not use in court may be suppressed. Critics claimed that legal representatives of defendants did not always have access to all needed relevant material in the police record. A defendant who is dissatisfied with the decision of a trial court of first instance may appeal to a higher court.
No guidelines mandate the acceptable quality of communications between judges, lawyers, and non-Japanese speaking defendants, and no standard licensing or qualification system for certifying court interpreters exists. A trial may proceed even if the accused does not understand what is happening or being said. Foreign detainees frequently claimed that police urged them to sign statements in Japanese that they could not read and were not translated adequately.
Up to July 2011, Japan does not signify nor ratify First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is an international treaty establishing an individual complaint mechanism for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 December 1966, and entered...
and Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty is a side agreement to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It was created on 15 December 1989, and entered into force on 11 July 1991. As of...
.
There were no reports of political prisoners.
Other issues
- The Constitution does not prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence but prohibit them by case law on interpretation on Article 13 of the Constitution, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice. In April 2003, the Public Security Investigation Agency extended surveillance of the terrorist group Aleph (formerly known as Aum ShinrikyoAum ShinrikyoAum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
) because the government declared the group still posed a danger to society. In 2002, the Defense AgencyJapan Defense AgencyThe is a cabinet-level ministry of the Japanese government. As a result of a law enacted on December 15, 2006, it became a ministry on January 9, 2007. Prior to that, it was the Japan Defense Agency ...
confirmed reports that it had violated a law protecting personal information when it compiled lists of citizens seeking official documents. A privacy bill to prevent such actions passed the Diet on May 2, 2003.
- Governmental attitude regarding international and nongovernmental investigation of alleged violations of human rights is generally cooperative and responsive to human rights group's views, although the government restricts their access to detention facilities. A number of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without governmental restrictions, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials generally were cooperative and responsive to their views, although the Government restricted access by human rights groups to detention facilities.
Freedom of speech and press
The Japanese Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press. In theory, an independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combine to ensure freedom of speech and of the press. However, Japan's system of exclusive press clubsKisha club
A , or "reporters' club", from the Japanese word , meaning reporter, is a Japanese news-gathering association of reporters from specific news organizations, whose reporting centers on a press room set up by sources such as the Prime Minister's official residence, government ministries, local...
has been criticised by press freedom groups. The clubs often provide major media outlets with exclusive
Exclusive
Exclusive typically means not with other things or not including other things.The terms inclusive and exclusive are contrasting terms, and often appear in the same context to describe contrasting things.Exclusive may refer to:...
access to news sources, while generally barring foreign and freelance reporters. The clubs provide the establishment press with access to official press conferences and background briefings with politicians, lawyers and business leaders. Critics say the club system allows the authorities to suppress news that they consider unfavorable to them and that it lowers the quality of news coverage.
Free speech and press issues include:
- In July 2003, the Diet passed legislation prohibiting the solicitation of sex from minors through the Internet. The Japan Internet Providers Association and the Telecom Services Association expressed concerns about the definitions of child prohibited sites and about the actions providers are required to take to prevent illegal use of Internet sites.
- Academic freedom is restricted. The Science, Technology, and Education MinistryMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan)The , also known as MEXT or Monkashō, is one of the ministries of the Japanese government.The Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871....
's authority to order revisions to elementary, middle, and high school textbooks based on national curriculum guidelines remained a source of domestic and international controversy.
Freedom of peaceful assembly and association
The Constitution provides for the freedom of assemblyFreedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
and association, and the Government generally respects these rights in practice.
Freedom of religion
The Constitution provides for freedom of religionFreedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
.
Members of the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
alleged that police did not respond to allegations of forced deprogramming of church members. While deprogramming cases decreased during the year, a Unification Church spokesman reported that prosecutors dropped two cases due to insufficient evidence. Although one member reportedly was kidnapped by her family during the year, the Unification Church did not report the case to police. Concerns remained regarding the tendency of officials to judge deprogramming
Deprogramming
Deprogramming refers to actions that attempt to force a person to abandon allegiance to a religious, political, economic, or social group. Methods and practices may involve kidnapping and coercion...
as a family matter. Unlike in previous years, Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
reported that their religious rights were respected by the Government during the year.
Freedom of movement
The ConstitutionConstitution of Japan
The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...
provides for the freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, immigration, and repatriation, and the Government
Government of Japan
The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the 1947 constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected...
generally respects them in practice. Citizens have the right to travel freely both within the country and abroad, to change their place of residence, to emigrate, and to repatriate voluntarily. Citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
may be forfeited by naturalization in a foreign country or by failure of persons born with dual nationality to elect citizenship at the required age. The law does not permit forced exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
, and it is not used.
The law provides for the granting of refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status or asylum to persons in accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not...
or its 1967 Protocol. In practice, the government provided protection against refoulement, the return of persons to a country where they feared persecution, but did not routinely grant refugee or asylum status. The Government cooperated with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees.
In May 2003, the Diet passed a bill abolishing the 60-day application deadline previously required for aliens seeking refugee status. The previous refugee recognition law stipulated that those seeking refugee status had to apply within 60 days upon arriving in Japan or within 60 days of learning that they were likely to be persecuted in their home country. An alien recognized as a refugee has access to educational facilities, public relief and aid, and social welfare benefits.
Government records indicated that 523,617 persons were detained in 2003 at immigration detention centers. According to media reports, several deportations were carried out in secret. In July, two Kurdish families staged a 72-day protest against their deportation orders in front of the United Nations University
United Nations University
The United Nations University is an academic arm of the United Nations established in 1973, which serves purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The UNU undertakes research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of...
in Tokyo.
As of 2005, the government has granted refugee and asylum status to those claiming fear of persecution in only a small number of cases. A nongovernmental organization (NGO), in a statement to the U.N. Subcommission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, noted that, from 1982 to December 2002, 301 persons were accepted as refugees. The Government considered that most persons seeking asylum in the country did so for economic reasons. In 2003, there were approximately 7,900 refugees and asylum seekers in the country, of whom an estimated 7,700 were Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n refugees. Out of 336 refugee claims submitted in 2003, the Government granted asylum to 10 persons from Burma
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and issued long-term residence permits based on humanitarian considerations to 16. As part of its ongoing family-reunification program for close relatives of Indochinese refugees resettled in earlier years, the Government admitted 147 refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia in 2003.
In May 2003, a law was passed granting the Justice Minister
Minister of Justice (Japan)
The is the member of the Cabinet of Japan in charge of the Ministry of Justice. The post has been held by Hideo Hiraoka since 2 September 2011.- Ministers of Justice :...
authority to issue temporary-stay permits to persons seeking asylum. While this law provides a way for asylum seekers to have legal status in the country during the refugee recognition process, in practice it was quite difficult to obtain such permits. In January 2003, the Immigration Bureau began to give detailed, written explanations of decisions not to grant refugee status to asylum-seekers and opened an information office at Narita Airport
Narita International Airport
is an international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is located east of Tokyo Station and east-southeast of Narita Station in the city of Narita, and the adjacent town of Shibayama....
for potential asylum seekers.
Political rights
The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair electionsElections in Japan
The Japanese political system has three types of elections: general elections to the House of Representatives held every four years , elections to the House of Councillors held every three years to choose one-half of its members, and local elections held every four years for offices in prefectures,...
held on the basis of universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. The country is a parliamentary democracy governed by the political party or parties able to form a majority in the lower house of its bicameral Diet
Diet of Japan
The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...
. The LDP
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...
and the New Komeito Party
New Komeito Party
The , New Kōmei Party, or NKP is a centre-right political party in Japan founded by members of the Nichiren Buddhist organization Sōka Gakkai. The leadership and financing of the two groups are currently independent...
formed the existing coalition government. Except for a brief hiatus in the 1990s, the LDP has been the dominant party in every government since the mid-1950s. The last general elections were held in on September 11, 2005, and elections for the Upper House
House of Councillors
The is the upper house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or designation of the prime minister, the House of Representatives...
were held in July 2003.
According to National Police Agency
National Police Agency (Japan)
The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....
figures for January through June 2003, there were 43 arrests involving political corruption for such charges as bribery, bid-rigging, and violation of the Political Funds Control Law. This was an increase of 14 cases from the previous year for the same time period. In recent years, the numbers of women holding public office has slowly increased. As of July 2003, women held 34 of 480 seats in the Lower House of the Diet and 33 seats in the 242-seat Upper House. As of September 2003, there were two women in the Cabinet
Cabinet of Japan
The of Japan is the executive branch of the government of Japan. It consists of the Prime Minister and up to fourteen other members, called Ministers of State. The Prime Minister is designated by the Diet, and the remaining ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister...
. As of April 2003, 4 of the country's 47 governors were women.
Discrimination
The Constitution prohibits discriminationDiscrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
on the basis of race, creed, gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, social status, or family origin, and the Government generally respects these provisions.
Violence against women, particularly domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
, often went unreported due to social and cultural concerns about shaming one's family or endangering the reputation of one's spouse or children. Kentucky NPA statistics on violence against women probably understated the magnitude of the problem. According to NPA statistics, there were 12,568 cases of alleged domestic violence and 1,499 restraining orders issued in 2003. Police took action in 41 cases in which court orders were violated. Between April and September, the 120 preferential consultation centers received 24,818 cases of domestic violence consultations. Of the total 103,986 consultations since fiscal 2002, 99.6% were for women.
The law allows district courts to impose 6-month restraining orders on perpetrators of domestic violence and to sentence violators up to 1 year in prison or impose fines of up to 1 million yen. According to Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Japan
The Supreme Court of Japan , located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority to interpret the Japanese constitution and decide questions of national law...
figures from January through September 2003, 1,579 applications for restraining orders against abusive spouses were sought, and 1,256 were issued. The orders either banned perpetrators from approaching their victims or ordered them to move away from the home, or both. The law also covers common-law marriages and divorced individuals; it also encourages prefectures to expand shelter facilities for domestic abuse victims and stipulates that local governments offer financial assistance to 40 private institutions already operating such shelters.
The revision to the Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims passed in May expanded the definition of spousal violence to include mental, sexual, and physical abuse and increased the length of restraining orders from 2 weeks to 2 months.
NPA statistics reported 2,472 rapes in 2003. Husbands have been prosecuted for spousal rape; usually these cases involved a third party who assisted in the rape. In light of several high-profile gang rapes in 2003 involving college students at Waseda University, the Upper House passed a bill in December making gang rape an offense punishable by a minimum penalty of 4 years in prison. In November 2004, a former student was sentenced to 14 years in prison for raping two women at a party organized by the "Super Free
Super Free
or its shortened form was an inter-university rave event club, mainly comprising students of Waseda University, The leader of the club along with various students from Waseda and other universities in Tokyo was arrested and convicted for rape and subsequently, the club was dubbed by several...
" student group, as well as a third woman in December 2001. All 13 other defendants received jail sentences of up to 10 years. Many local governments responded to the need for confidential assistance for abused women by establishing special women's consultation departments in police and prefectural offices.
Local governments and private rail operators continued to implement measures designed to address the widespread problem of groping and molestation of female commuters. Several railway companies have introduced women-only rail cars on various trains, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly revised its anti-groping ordinance to make first-time offenders subject to imprisonment.
The Constitution and the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Law aims to prohibit sexual discrimination; however, sexual harassment in the workplace remained widespread. The National Personnel Authority established workplace rules in an effort to stop harassment in public servants' workplaces. A 1999 revision to the EEO Law includes measures to identify companies that fail to prevent sexual harassment, but it does not include punitive measures to enforce compliance, other than allowing names of offending companies to be publicized. A number of government entities have established hotlines and designated ombudsmen to handle complaints of discrimination and sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
.
Up to August 2011, Japan does not ratify the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention by ILO.
Women made up 40.5% of the labor force, and women between the ages of 15 and 64 had a labor force participation rate of 48.5%. Although the Labor Standards and the EEO laws prohibit wage discrimination, in 2003, the average hourly wage for women was only 67.8% of the hourly wage for men. There was a significant salary income gap between men and women in 2003, with 64% of female employees earning 3 million yen or less per year, as compared with 18% of all male employees, according to Cabinet Office statistics. Much of this disparity resulted from the "two-track" personnel administration system found in most larger companies under which new hires were put either in the managerial track (for those perceived as having executive potential) or the general track (for those engaged in basic office work).
Up to July 2011, Japan does not signify nor ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international treaty which establishes complaint and inquiry mechanisms for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women...
.
Advocacy groups for women and persons with disabilities continued to press for a government investigation, a formal government apology, and compensation for sterilizations that were carried out between 1949-92.
Several cases filed by women forced to work as "comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
" (prostitutes) during World War II were finalized during the year. In February, the Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by 7 Taiwanese former "comfort women," while in November the Supreme Court dismissed a damage suit filed in 1991 by 35 Korean wartime "comfort women." In December, the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal by 4 Chinese former "comfort women," and the Supreme Court rejected a suit filed in 1993 by 46 Filipina wartime "comfort women."
Rights of children
Boys and girls have equal access to health careHealth care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and other public services. Education
Education in Japan
In Japan, education is compulsory at the elementary and lower secondary levels. Approximately 98% of all students progress to the upper secondary level, which is voluntary . Most students attend public schools through the lower secondary level, but private education is popular at the upper...
is mostly free and compulsory
Compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...
through the lower secondary level (age 14 or ninth grade
Ninth grade
Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....
). Education was available widely to students who met minimum academic standards at the upper secondary level through the age of 18. Society places an extremely high value on education, and enrollment levels for both boys and girls through the free upper secondary level exceeded 96%.
Public attention was focused increasingly on reports of frequent child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
in the home. The law grants child welfare
Child welfare
Child protection is used to describe a set of usually government-run services designed to protect children and young people who are underage and to encourage family stability...
officials the authority to prohibit abusive parents from meeting or communicating with their children, although due to Japanese cultural views on family matters being "private", this enforcement option is rarely exercised. The law also bans abuse under the guise of discipline
Discipline
In its original sense, discipline is referred to systematic instruction given to disciples to train them as students in a craft or trade, or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order". Often, the phrase "to discipline" carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order –...
and obliges teachers, doctors, and welfare officials to report any suspicious circumstances to 1 of the 182 nationwide local child counseling centers or to a municipal welfare center. In May 2003, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reported that 108 children died as a result of child abuse since the enactment of the Child Abuse Prevention Law in 2000. In 2003, there were a record 23,738 cases of child abuse, up almost 2% from 2002, according to the Cabinet Office. Approximately 50% of the cases involved violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, and 40% were cases of parental neglect
Neglect
Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care....
. Child welfare centers likewise reported a record 26,573 calls in 2003, an increase of 2,800 calls from the previous year. Generally accepted statistics indicate that upwards of 70% of child abuse cases involve a female perpetrator, usually the child's mother
Mother
A mother, mum, mom, momma, or mama is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally...
, demonstrating that violence and abuse is not a gender-specific phenomenon. Although the Government offered subsidies to local governments to combat record-high child abuse, only 13% accepted the offer. Most of the local governments declining the subsidies stated they could not afford to pay their share of the bill.
Incidents of violence in schools, severe bullying ("ijime") and bullycide
Bullycide
The term bullycide is a portmanteau word first used in 2001 by Neil Marr and Tim Field in their book Bullycide: Death at Playtime. It refers to suicide attributable to the victim having been bullied, either in person or via social media. Bullycide has also been defined as the killing of the bully...
also continued to be a societal and government concern. According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, public elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
children committed a record 1,777 violent acts in the 2003 academic year, an increase of 27% from the previous school year, including acts of violence committed both on and off school grounds. In all 35,392 violent acts were committed in public elementary, junior high, and high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s during the 2003 academic year. Overall, cases of bullying rose 5.2%.
Student-on-student violence accounted for 50% of the violence by students in public schools. In June, a sixth grade
Sixth grade
Sixth grade is a year of education in the United States and some other nations. The sixth grade is the sixth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 11 – 12 years old...
r murdered her classmate, and a junior high school student pushed a 5-year-old boy off the fourth floor of an apartment building. The MOJ's Office of the Ombudsman for Children's Rights provided counseling services for children 18 years of age and younger who had been victims of bullying. In May, a High Court overturned a 2002 lower court ruling and ordered seven persons to pay a total 57.6 million yen to parents of a 13-year-old boy killed in a bullying incident in 1993.
Teenage prostitution, dating for money, and child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
continued to be problems. According to the Cabinet Office's white paper, there were 722 sex-related crimes associated with dating sites during the year. Easy access to web sites through mobile phones with Internet access made it easier for strangers to set up encounters with juveniles. In July 2003, the Diet passed a law criminalizing the use of the Internet for child pornography and prostitution.
Children under the age of 14 cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions. Under juvenile law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, juvenile suspects are tried in family court and have the right of appeal to an appellate court. Family court
Family court
A family court is a court convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, such as custody of children. In common-law jurisdictions "family courts" are statutory creations primarily dealing with equitable matters devolved from a court of inherent jurisdiction, such as a...
proceedings are not open to the public, a policy that has been criticized by family members of juvenile crime victims. For the last several years, juvenile crime has shown a trend toward more serious offenses such as murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
, arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, and rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
. The Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
prefectural government continued programs to protect the welfare of stateless children, whose births their illegal immigrant mothers had refused to register for fear of forcible repatriation
Repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...
.
Trafficking of persons
The Constitution prohibits holding persons in bondage, and the government employed a variety of labor and immigration statutes to carry out limited trafficking-related prosecutions; however, there are no specific laws that prohibit trafficking in personsHuman trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
. In April, the government created a senior coordinator presiding over an inter-ministerial committee for anti-trafficking efforts. In December, the Government released its Action Plan to combat trafficking in persons. Focusing on prevention, prosecution, and protection of trafficking victims, the Action Plan calls for a review of "entertainer" visas, strengthened immigration control, revision of the penal code to make trafficking in persons a crime, and added protection of victims through shelters, counseling, and repatriation assistance.
Sexual exploitation
Trafficking of women and girls into the country was a problem. Women and girls, primarily from Thailand, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe, were trafficked into the country for sexual exploitationSexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation may refer to:*Sexual slavery*Sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian response...
and forced labour. Women and girls from Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia also were trafficked into the country in smaller numbers. The country was a destination for illegal immigrants from China who were trafficked by organized crime groups and held in debt bondage for sexual exploitation and indentured servitude in sweatshops and restaurants. The Government reported that some smugglers used killings and abduction to enforce cooperation.
Although reliable statistics on the number of women trafficked to the country were unavailable, human rights groups reported that up to 200,000 persons, mostly Southeast Asian women, are smuggled annually into the country and forced to work in the sex industry. In 2003, the NPA arrested 41 individuals for trafficking-related offenses, 8 of whom were traffickers. Of these individuals, 36 were convicted, 14 received prison terms, 17 received fines, and 5 received both a fine and prison term. In February 2003, 17 prefecture police offices and the Tokyo Metropolitan police simultaneously raided 24 strip clubs and rescued 68 trafficking victims. The NPA also participated in 16 transnational investigations. During the year, efforts were underway to improve screening of travelers arriving in Japan from key source countries of trafficking and to tighten the issuance of "entertainer" visas, which are often used by traffickers.
The government does not consider an individual who has willingly entered into an agreement to work illegally in the country to be a trafficking victim, regardless of that person's working conditions. Thus, government figures may understate the problem, as persons who agreed to one kind of work found themselves doing another, or were subject to force, fraud, or coercion.
Traffickers were prosecuted for crimes ranging from violations of employment law to immigration violations. A government-funded study released in 2000 found that nearly two-thirds of foreign women surveyed following arrests for immigration offenses reported that they were working in the sex industry under duress. Many women who were trafficked into the country, particularly from the Philippines, entered legally on entertainment visas. "Entertainers" are not covered by the Labor Standards Law and have no minimum wage protections. Brokers in the countries of origin recruited women and "sold" them to intermediaries, who in turn subjected them to debt bondage and coercion. Agents, brokers, and employers involved in trafficking for sexual exploitation often had ties to organized crime.
Women trafficked to the country generally were employed as prostitutes under coercive conditions in businesses licensed to provide commercial sex services. Sex entertainment businesses are classified as "store form" businesses such as strip clubs, sex shops, hostess bars, and private video rooms, and as "nonstore form" businesses such as escort services and mail order video services, which arrange for sexual services to be conducted elsewhere. According to NGOs and other credible sources, most women who were trafficked to the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation were employed as hostesses in "snack" bars, where they were required to provide sexual services off-premises.
Trafficking victims generally did not realize the extent of their indebtedness, the amount of time it would take them to repay the debts, or the conditions of employment they would be subjected to upon arrival. According to Human Rights Watch, the passports of women trafficked to work in "dating" bars usually were confiscated by their employers, who also demanded repayment for the cost of the woman's "purchase." Typically, the women were charged 3 to 5 million yen, their living expenses, medical care (when provided by the employer) and other necessities, as well as "fines" for misbehavior added to the original "debt" over time. How the debt was calculated was left to the employers; the process was not transparent, and the employers reportedly often used the debt to coerce additional unpaid labor from the trafficked women. Employers also sometimes "resold," or threatened to resell, troublesome women or women found to be HIV positive, thereby increasing their debt and possibly worsening their working conditions.
Many women trafficked into the sex trade had their movements strictly controlled by their employers and were threatened with reprisals, perhaps through members of organized crime groups, to themselves or their families if they tried to escape. Employers often isolated the women, subjected them to constant surveillance, and used violence to punish them for disobedience. There were reports that some brokers used drugs to subjugate victims. Many trafficked women also knew that they were subject to arrest if found without their passports or other identification documents. Few spoke Japanese well, making escape even more difficult.
Domestic NGOs and lawyers compiled credible anecdotal evidence suggesting that some individual police officials returned trafficking victims to their employers when these individuals sought police protection. NGOs also reported that police sometimes declined to investigate suspected brokers when presented with information obtained from trafficking victims.
Except for the Tokyo Metropolitan and Kanagawa Prefectural Government, which funded locally based NGOs assisting victims of trafficking, the Government did not assist victims of trafficking other than to house them temporarily in detention centers for illegal immigrants or facilities established under the Anti-prostitution Law, or by referral to shelters run by NGOs. Generally these trafficking victims were deported as illegal aliens. During the year, the Government administratively decided not to treat victims as immediately deportable criminals, allowing the Government to develop its cases against traffickers. Victims without documentation or sufficient funds to return to their country of origin were sometimes detained for long periods. Several NGOs throughout the country provided shelter, medical aid, and legal assistance to trafficking victims.
During the year, government officials met with destination-country officials and participated in a Southeast Asian study tour to research trafficking issues. The Government has instituted tighter entertainer visa issuance and intends to cut the number of such visas issued to women from the Philippines from 80,000 to 8,000 a year. In 2003, the Cabinet Affairs Office conducted a campaign to heighten public awareness of violence against women and trafficking, while the NPA produced a training video on trafficking and distributed it to all police offices to improve their awareness of trafficking. In 2003, the Government disbursed 315 million yen to UNICEF, the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
(ILO), the United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...
, and the Philippine government to alleviate poverty, raise awareness of the dangers of trafficking, and promote alternative economic opportunities for women.
Rights of persons with disabilities
There were an estimated 3.4 million persons over the age of 18 with physical disabilities and roughly 3 million with mental disabilities. Although not generally subject to overt discrimination in employment, education, or in the provision of other state services, persons with disabilities faced limited access to public transportation, "mainstream" public education, and other facilities. The Deliberation Panel on the Employment of the HandicappedHandicapped
Handicapped or handicap may refer to:*Handicapping, various methods of leveling a sport or game**Golf handicap, a sport-specific handicapping method**Go handicaps**Handicaps in shogi**Asian handicap, bookmakers technique to level odds...
, which operates within the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, has mandated that private companies with 300 or more employees hire a fixed minimum proportion of persons with disabilities. The penalty for noncompliance is a fine.
The law does not mandate accessibility to buildings for persons with disabilities; however, the law on construction standards for public facilities allows operators of hospitals, theaters, hotels, and similar enterprises to receive low-interest loans and tax benefits if they build wider entrances and elevators to accommodate persons with disabilities.
The Law to Promote the Employment of the Handicapped includes those with mental disabilities. The law also loosened the licensing requirements for community support centers that promote employment for persons with disabilities, and it introduced government subsidies for the employment of persons with mental disabilities in part-time jobs. In 2003, workers with disabilities employed by private companies comprised on average 1.5% of the total number of regular employees, somewhat less than the legally stipulated rate of 1.8%. While nearly 70% of large corporations (1,000 or more employees) fell short of this goal, several large corporations had special divisions for workers with disabilities, including Omron
OMRON
is a Japanese electronics company based in Kyoto.Omron was established by Kazuma Tateishi in 1933 and incorporated in 1948. Omron's primary business is the manufacture and sale of automation components, equipment and systems, but it is generally known for medical equipment such as digital...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, and Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
. For example, 80% of Omron's Kyoto factory staff of 82 had disabilities, with the majority having severe disabilities. These employees earn an average of 3 million yen per year, which is above the minimum wage.
At the end of 2002, all prefectural governments and 91.5% of local city governments had developed basic plans for citizens with disabilities. In June, the Disabled Persons Fundamental Law was revised, obligating all municipalities to draw up formal plans for the disabled.
Up to July 2011, Japan has signed yet not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities...
.
Minorities
BurakuminBurakumin
are a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent....
, Koreans, Chinese, and alien workers experienced varying degrees of societal discrimination, some of it severe and longstanding. The approximately 3 million Burakumin (descendants of feudal era "outcasts"), although not subject to governmental discrimination, frequently were victims of entrenched societal discrimination, including restricted access to housing and employment opportunities.
According to the MOJ
Ministry of Justice (Japan)
The is one of Ministries of the Japanese government.-Meiji Constitution:The Ministry of Justice was established under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1871 as the .-Constitution of Japan:...
, there were nearly 1.85 million legal foreign residents as of 2002. The largest group, at approximately 625,400, was ethnic Koreans, followed by Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ians, and Filipinos
Filipinos in Japan
Filipinos in Japan formed a population of 202,592 individuals at year-end 2007, making them Japan's fourth-largest foreign community, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice. Their population reached as high as 245,518 in 1998, but fell to 144,871 individuals in 2000 before...
. Despite improvements in legal safeguards against discrimination, Korean permanent residents (so-called Zainichi Korean
Zainichi Korean
Koreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the second largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...
s, most of whom were born, raised, and educated in Japan) were subject to various forms of deeply entrenched societal discrimination. Harassment and threats against pro-North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n organizations and persons reportedly have increased since the 2002 admission by North Korea that it had kidnapped more than a dozen Japanese citizens
North Korean abductions of Japanese
The abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government happened during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Although only 17 Japanese are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted, there may have been as many as 70 to 80...
. Other foreigners also were subject to discrimination. There was a widespread perception among Japanese citizens that foreigners committed many crimes
Crime in Japan
Crime in Japan is lower than in many other first world countries. While crime is still infrequent, the past decade has seen increasing crime. There are controversies regarding crimes committed by non-ethnic Japanese people and misconduct by police in reporting crime statistics.-Yakuza:The yakuza...
. According to a government survey, more than 70% of citizens worried that an increase in the number of illegally employed foreign workers could undermine public safety and result in human rights abuses against the workers themselves. Nevertheless, more than 80% said the country should accept foreign laborers conditionally or unconditionally.
A controversial Immigration Bureau website launched in February allows informants to report the name, address, or workplace of any suspicious foreigners for such reasons as "causing a nuisance in the neighborhood" and "causing anxiety." In the face of protests from human rights groups, the site was amended in March to remove the preset reasons, but remained operational at year's end.
By law, aliens with 5 years of continuous residence are eligible for naturalization and citizenship rights, including the right to vote; however, in practice, most eligible aliens choose not to apply for citizenship, partly due to fears that their cultural identity would be lost. Obstacles to naturalization included broad discretion available to adjudicating officers and great emphasis on Japanese-language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
ability. Naturalization procedures also required an extensive background check, including inquiries into the applicant's economic status and assimilation into society. Koreans were given the option of adopting a Japanese surname. The Government defended its naturalization procedures as necessary to ensure the smooth assimilation of foreigners into society. Alien permanent residents may live abroad for up to 4 or 5 years without losing their right to permanent residence in the country.
In September 2003, the School Education Law was amended to allow graduates of 21 non Japanese language schools to become automatically eligible to take university entrance examinations. Previously all students of non-Japanese language schools were required to pass a state-run high school equivalency test to qualify for the examinations. The amended law also enabled universities to set their admissions criteria at their own discretion. During 2003, many national universities also admitted graduates of non-Japanese language schools other than the 21 schools included in the School Education Law amendment.
Indigenous people: Ryukyuan and Ainu people
The Ainu peopleAinu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
are people descended from the first inhabitants of the country. Under an 1899 law, the Government pursued a policy of forced assimilation, imposing mandatory Japanese-language education and denying the Ainu their right to continue traditional practices. The law also left the Ainu with control of approximately 0.15% of their original land holdings and empowered the Government to manage communal assets.
After a 1997 court ruling, the Diet passed a law that recognized the Ainu as an ethnic minority, required all prefectural governments to develop basic programs for promoting Ainu culture and traditions, canceled previous laws that discriminated against the Ainu, and required the Government of Hokkaidō to return Ainu communal assets. However, the law stopped short of recognizing the Ainu as the indigenous people of Hokkaidō, failed to address whether they deserved special rights as a distinct ethnic group, and did not mandate civil rights protection for the Ainu. A nonbinding accompanying resolution referred to the Ainu as a legal minority. The United Nations Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations stated that the Ainu never had entered into a consensual juridical relationship with any state and noted that the lack of such an agreement deprived them of their rights. Many Ainu criticized the Law to Promote Ainu Culture for not advancing Ainu political rights and criticized the Government for not providing funds for noncultural activities that would improve Ainu living conditions or financial status. The Japan Ainu Association, a nationwide organization of Ainu, lobbied the Government for economic assistance and greater social welfare benefits. Although Ainu-language newspapers, radio programs, and academic programs studying Ainu culture have increased, the Ainu continued to face societal discrimination.
Right of association
The Constitution provides for the right of workers to associate freely in unionsLabor unions in Japan
Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political...
. In 2003, approximately 10.5 million workers, 19.6% of all employees, belonged to labor unions. Unions were free of government control and influence. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation
Sohyo
Sōhyō , the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan, founded in 1950 is the predominantly public sector union confederation in Japan. It merged with RENGO in 1990....
, which represented 6.8 million workers and was formed in 1989 through the merger of several confederations, was the largest labor organization.
Some public employees, including members of the Self-Defense Forces, police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
, and firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
s are not permitted to form unions or to strike. These restrictions have led to a long-running dispute with the ILO Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations over the observance of ILO Convention 98 concerning the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Committee has observed that these public employees have a limited capacity to participate in the process of determining their wages and has asked the Government to consider measures it could take to encourage negotiations with public employees. The Government determines the pay of government employees based on a recommendation by the independent National Personnel Authority
National Personnel Authority
The in Japan advises the prime minister on salaries and other matters pertaining to national government civil servants....
.
Right to organize and bargain collectively
The Constitution provides unions with the right to organize, bargain, and act collectively. These rights were exercised freely, and collective bargaining was practiced widely. The Constitution provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised this right in practice. There are no export processing zones.Prohibition of forced or compulsory labor
The Constitution provides that no person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited. Although children were not specified in the provision, this legal prohibition against forced or compulsory labor applies equally to adults and to children. In practice, there were no reports of persons held in bondage or involuntary servitude apart from trafficking victims.Former Allied prisoners of war and Chinese and Korean workers continued to press claims in Japanese civil courts and in complaints to the ILO for damages and compensation for forced labor during World War II. In 2004, the United State Supreme Court rejected appeals from former prisoners of war and others who claimed they were forced to work for private Japanese companies as slave laborers during World War II. In July, overturning a district court's 2002 decision against Chinese plaintiffs, a high court ordered Nishimatsu Construction Company to pay 27.5 million yen in compensation to a group of World War II slave laborers. In January 2003, a U.S. federal appeals court dismissed a number of lawsuits by former prisoners of war and civilians who alleged they had been forced to labor for private Japanese firms during World War II.
Japan has ratified the ILO Convention on Forced Labour No. 29 in 1932, yet up to july 2011 still has not ratified Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105.
Prohibition of child labor
The Constitution bans the employment of children. Both societal values and the rigorous enforcement of the Labor Standards Law protect children from exploitation in the workplace. By law, children under the age of 15 may not be employed, and those under age 18 may not be employed in dangerous or harmful jobs.Acceptable work conditions, and minimum wage
Minimum wageMinimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
s are set on a regional (prefectural) and industry basis, with the input of tripartite (workers, employers, public interest) advisory councils. Employers covered by a minimum wage must post the concerned minimum wages, and compliance with minimum wages was considered widespread. Minimum wage rates ranged according to prefecture from 606 to 710 yen per hour. Minimum wage rates were considered sufficient to provide a worker and family with a decent standard of living
Standard of living
Standard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
.
The Labor Standards Law provides for a 40-hour workweek for most industries and mandates premium pay for hours worked over 40 in a week, or 8 in a day. However, labor unions frequently criticized the government for failing to enforce maximum working hour regulations in smaller firms. Activist groups claimed that employers exploited or discriminated against foreign workers, who often had little or no knowledge of the Japanese language or their legal rights. The Immigration Bureau of the MOJ estimated that, as of January, there were more than 200,000 foreign nationals, primarily from South Korea, the Philippines, China, Thailand, and Malaysia, residing illegally in the country, with the majority of them engaged in manual labor.
The government tried to reduce the inflow of illegal foreign workers by prosecuting employers of such workers. According to NPA figures, 175 persons were charged with "illegal employment assistance" during the first half of 2002. The Immigration Law
Immigration law
Immigration law refers to national government policies which control the phenomenon of immigration to their country.Immigraton law, regarding foreign citizens, is related to nationality law, which governs the legal status of people, in matters such as citizenship...
provides for penalties against employers of undocumented foreign workers. Maximum fines for illegal employment assistance were raised to 3 million yen in December. Suspected foreign workers also may be denied entry for passport, visa, and entry application irregularities. The Government continued to study the foreign worker issue, and several citizens' groups were working with illegal foreign workers to improve their access to information on worker rights.
The Ministry of Labor
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan)
The ' is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as Kōrō-shō in Japan. This ministry provides regulations on maximum residue limits for agricultural chemicals in foods, basic food and drug regulations, standards for foods, food additives, etc.It was formed with...
effectively administered various laws and regulations governing occupational health and safety, principal among which is the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Standards were set by the Ministry of Labor and issued after consultation with the Standing Committee on Safety and Health of the Central Labor Standards Council. Labor inspectors have the authority to suspend unsafe operations immediately, and the law provides that workers may voice concerns over occupational safety and remove themselves from unsafe working conditions without jeopardizing their continued employment.
See also
- Ainu peopleAinu peopleThe , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
- Demographics of JapanDemographics of JapanThe demographic features of the population of Japan include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
- Ethnic issues in JapanEthnic issues in Japan- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
- Human trafficking in JapanHuman trafficking in JapanJapan is a destination and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Women and children trafficked to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation come from the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, Southeast Asia,...
- International child abduction in Japan
- Prostitution in JapanProstitution in JapanProstitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history.While the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it," various loopholes, liberal interpretations of the law, and loose enforcement have allowed the sex industry to...
- LGBT rights in Japan
- Ryukyuan peopleRyukyuansThe are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyūshū and Taiwan. The generally recognized subgroups of Ryukyuans are Amamians, Okinawans, Miyakoans, Yaeyamans, and Yonagunians. Geographically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture...
- Ryūkyū independence movementRyukyu independence movementThe or Republic of the Ryūkyūs is a movement for the independence of Okinawa and the surrounding islands , from Japan. The movement emerged in 1945, after the end of the Pacific War...
- Flag of JapanFlag of JapanThe national flag of Japan is a white rectangular flag with a large red disk in the center. This flag is officially called in Japanese, but is more commonly known as ....
International:
- Human rights in Central AsiaHuman rights in Central AsiaThe situation of human rights in Central Asia varies little between the region's countries, but are often reported to be a cause of concern among many outsider observers, governmental and non-governmental...
- Human rights in EuropeHuman rights in EuropeThe current human rights situation in Europe on the whole is believed by many to be good. However, there are several human rights alleged problems ranging from the treatment of asylum seekers through police brutality to various infringements of the judicial rights and freedoms of businesspersons...
- Human rights in the United StatesHuman rights in the United StatesHuman rights in the United States are legally protected by the Constitution of the United States and amendments, conferred by treaty, and enacted legislatively through Congress, state legislatures, and plebiscites...
External links
- The Japan Children's Rights Network
- Equal Employment Opportunity Law
- Censorship in Japan
- AHRC articles, including urgent appeals, statements and open letters into Japanese. Other related human rights documents
- Japan Civil Liberties Union Subcommittee for the Rights of Foreigners
- Text of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination UN OHCHR