Diversity Within an Asian Country: Japanese Criminal Justice and Criminology

Abstract

As Aoki (1999) has pointed out, we can observe “four types of time” that flow simultaneously throughout the Asian region: “indigenous,” “Asian,” “historical,” and “contemporary” times. This anthropological viewpoint is also applicable to the nature of criminal justice and the ways of understanding crime phenomena, including the criminological perspective, in Japan. In this chapter, with this viewpoint, we will examine Japanese criminal justice and criminology from four angles. First, in Japan, the legal consciousness connected to native laws underlies the present criminal justice system and the legal notions in these laws leave their mark on the understanding of crime phenomena. Second, in ancient Japan, penal codes were imported mainly from China and incorporated into Japanese society. The traits that emerged in those years also remain in current criminal justice in Japan. Third, the historical transplantation of modern Western European criminal laws and social sciences into Japan formed a foundation for present-day criminal justice and criminology. Fourth, in contemporary Japan, since the end of World War II, criminal justice and criminology have become highly Americanized. Through these inquiries, it will be conclusively shown that both the criminal justice system and criminological thought in an Asian country such as Japan are diverse enough to achieve dynamic development.