Amnesty International Report 1999 - Japan

JAPAN

Reports persisted of detainees and prisoners being ill-treated in prisons, detention centres, immigration detention centres and police custody. Conditions of detention remained harsh, often amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Around 100 people remained under sentence of death; six were executed. Asylum-seekers continued to be detained on entry to Japan.

Japan was officially pronounced to be in economic recession, with the unemployment rate reaching a post-1945 record of over four per cent. The government announced a clamp-down on illegal foreign workers in June. The economic slump led to disastrous results for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Upper House elections in July, prompting the resignation of Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro. His successor, Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo, vowed to tackle the economic problems beginning with reform of the banking sector.

In August the UN Special Rapporteur on systematic rape and sexual slavery during armed conflict of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities criticized Japan's initiative to provide compensation to former "comfort women" (women forced into prostitution by the Japanese army during the Second World War) through the establishment of unofficial, private "atonement" funds. She recommended that the government cooperate with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a special panel to arrange for Japan to make official, monetary compensation to former "comfort women". Japan was also encouraged to seek out and prosecute all those responsible for establishing the "comfort stations" and to provide reports to the UN Secretary-General detailing the progress that had been made. In September the South Korean government called on Japan to stop offering private funds to former "comfort women" in South Korea. The Japanese government agreed to the request, but the wider issue of state compensation remained unresolved at the end of the year. In November the Tokyo District Court dismissed claims by former prisoners of war and civilian internees from five countries for compensation from the Japanese government for ill-treatment during the Second World War. The plaintiffs vowed to appeal against the decision.

In October the UN Human Rights Committee reviewed Japan's fourth periodic report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Among its recommendations, the Committee urged the government to establish independent mechanisms for investigating complaints of human rights violations. It called on the government to conduct a review of immigration detention facilities with a view to bringing conditions into line with the ICCPR, take measures towards the abolition of the death penalty, improve the conditions of detention of death penalty prisoners, and institute immediate reforms to the pre-trial detention system. The Committee also registered "deep concern" about many aspects of the prison system.

Prisoners and detainees alleging ill-treatment continued to lodge claims in court for state compensation. Some claimed to have been subjected to arbitrary punishments which amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In July the Tokyo District Court came to a judgment in a state compensation case launched by Kobayashi Tatsuya after he had reportedly been assaulted by a prison guard and held in a leather body belt and metal handcuffs in a so-called "protection cell" in Fuchu Prison in the capital Tokyo. Kobayashi Tatsuya argued that, although he had spoken rudely to a prison guard, there was no reason to place him in such conditions since he had not behaved violently. He added that the body belt and handcuffs had caused him physical injury. The court rejected his claims and ruled that it was not a human rights violation to restrain him in this way. Kobayashi Tatsuya appealed against the court's decision, but the appeal had not been completed by the end of the year. The case was typical of a number of incidents where prisoners alleged that they had been punished for minor infractions of prison rules by detention in "protection cells". Commonly, prisoners held in such conditions were restrained in leather body belts and handcuffs, forced to wear trousers with an open crotch for defecation, and forced to eat without using their hands.

Saeid Pilhvar, an Iranian national, was transferred to Hachioji Medical Prison in July after staging a hunger strike to protest against his treatment in Kurobane Prison. He claimed that guards at Kurobane Prison had interrogated him for talking with another inmate and had refused to provide him with an interpreter during a meeting convened to decide his punishment. The prison authorities had reacted to his hunger strike by forcibly injecting a liquid into his leg. This reportedly caused severe swelling and paralysis necessitating the use of a wheelchair. Even after his transfer to Hachioji Prison, Saeid Pilhvar remained ill and underweight, and was reported to be suffering from anorexia. His lawyers applied for his provisional release for medical treatment outside the prison but the request had not been granted by the end of the year.

Police referred eight immigration officers to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office in February following an investigation into the death of Mousavi Abarbekouh Mir Hossein in Kita-ku Immigration Detention Centre in 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998). They were suspected of causing bodily injuries resulting in death. However, prosecutors decided not to pursue the case. In October the victim's family launched a civil suit against the authorities to obtain state compensation for his death.

Conditions of detention in prisons remained harsh, often amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Internal rules governing almost every aspect of prisoners' lives remained confidential and secret, ostensibly on grounds of national security. Prison rules often prevent prisoners from making eye-contact with each other or talking to each other outside designated times. Prisoners may be forced to adopt a certain posture while sitting in their cells or to walk in a certain fashion when outside their cells. Some prison rules prevent prisoners from wearing gloves or extra clothing during the cold winter months and reports of frostbite among prisoners persisted. Minor infractions of prison rules continued to be punished with severe sanctions. For example, some prisoners were forced to kneel or sit in the same position in single cells every day for up to two months, with no form of exercise, mental stimulation or contact with other prisoners.

At the end of the year, around 100 prisoners remained under sentence of death and were held in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Three men were executed in June having spent more than 10 years in single cells with no contact with other prisoners and limited contact with the outside world. Muratake Masahiro, Takeyasu Yukihisa and Shimazu Shinji had been convicted in separate cases of robbery and murder. In November, three further executions were carried out just weeks after the UN Human Rights Committee had urged the government to take measures towards the abolition of the death penalty. The prisoners executed were Tsuda Akira, Ida Masamichi and Nishio Tatsuaki, who had all spent between 10 and 20 years under sentence of death. It was unclear why these six prisoners were selected for execution. In keeping with usual practice, no advance warning of the executions was given to the prisoners, their families or their lawyers.

In July a local court in Kochi imposed the death penalty on Sakamoto Haruno, a 71-year-old woman, for two cases of murder. In September the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Miyazaki Tomoko against the death sentence imposed on her for the abduction and murder of two young women in 1980.

Asylum-seekers continued to be detained on entry to Japan. Li Xuemei, a pregnant woman from China, was arrested in February for attempting to enter Japan without valid travel documents. She was tried on criminal charges of illegal entry even though she had applied for refugee status. She was held in detention for five months throughout the investigation and trial. In July the local court in Matsue found her guilty, but exempted her from punishment on humanitarian grounds. Her application for asylum was rejected by the Ministry of Justice in October.

In January Amnesty International issued an appeal following a severe deterioration in the health of Saeid Pilhvar. The Ministry of Justice responded by denying that his life had been in danger. In June Amnesty International published a report, Japan: Abusive punishments in Japanese prisons, which summarized recent cases of ill-treatment through the punitive use of instruments of restraint, "protection cells" and solitary confinement. Amnesty International urged the government to publish all internal prison rules and carry out full, impartial and independent investigations into all deaths in custody and allegations of ill-treatment. The organization had not received any comments from the government on this report by the end of the year.

In November Amnesty International wrote to the authorities condemning the executions carried out that month. It urged the government to take steps to abolish the death penalty in line with the UN Human Rights Committee's recommendations.