crime

Gov’t panel recommends GPS devices for suspects out on bail

20 Comments

An advisory panel to Japan’s Ministry of Justice has recommended that legislation be submitted to the Diet, requiring suspects who are out on bail awaiting trial wear GPS monitoring devices to prevent their escape.

The proposal is the result of a series of discussions held by a committee belonging to the Legislative Council after former Nissan Chairman Carlo Ghosn escaped from Japan in December 2019, while out on bail, Sankei Shimbun reported. Bail is being granted in an increasing number of cases and the panel said a GPS system is needed to ensure that suspects appear in court.

The panel said that a GPS device will allow authorities to keep an eye on the whereabouts of defendants and if they go to an airport or seaport, for example, they will be detained for questioning.

Defendants out on bail will also be liable to further penalties if they are stay away from their designated home for longer than allowed, unless they have special permission.

© Japan Today

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20 Comments
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Happy to hear that.

Now the false premise of keeping the people hostage for 2 weeks to "prevent them from removing any evidence" will render unusable.

This is the end of the Japanese Hostage Justice System.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Hope they are making the devices more fool-proof. Nary a week goes by without reading in the crime section of newspapers that some pre-trial felon or parole-impaired soul managed to cut through or slip out of their device, and go on a rampage. Or simply disappear.

Also the tech side: some of these devices are legendary for making false alerts (probationer was actually being good, but re-arrested when the device said otherwise). And for not working if it gets damp or around other devices with magnets.

Good luck to all!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

An advisory panel to Japan’s Ministry of Justice has recommended that legislation be submitted to the Diet, requiring suspects who are out on bail awaiting trial wear GPS monitoring devices to prevent their escape.

No legislation is being submitted to prevent Japan justice system, also no legislation being submitted to prevent prosecutor tampering with evidence?

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/10/20/national/top-osaka-prosecutor-to-resign-over-evidence-tampering-scandal/

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I recommend the same for politicians. They fall into the same bracket as they continue to cause public harm.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Are ankle monitors not already in use in Japan? Wait, what am I saying...this is Japan.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

See? All that "AI" tech and apps required to lock down returnees...er "quarantined" people...all that had multiple spin-off uses! We can monitor "citizens" (innocent, not guilty), if we like, just as easily as we now can monitor "suspects" (innocent, not guilty).

....If we like. How do you know? You don't. I'm sure there are all sorts of "rules" preventing the spread of such intrusive spyware (unlike in "quarantine", where you simply have NO choice), but hey, rules were meant to be broken, right? Nobody needs to know...if it's for the "public good."

Anyway, your "smart"phone is already doing this for a host of non-state business interests who then profit off of packaging your collected data, and you gave them your permission when you signed up and clicked "OK" on the latest service update, so...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

In other news (from JapanTimes' version of this article):

The existing crime of escape only covers cases in which criminals run away from prisons. Against this background, the draft proposal calls for creating a crime of nonappearance to punish defendants if they do not appear in court on the day of their trials and a crime of defection if they leave their designated residences without permission, aiming for prison terms of up to two years.

Thanks a lot, Ghosn, for reducing the defence rights of the Japanese people!

@SkepticalToday 07:46 am JST

Hope they are making the devices more fool-proof. Nary a week goes by without reading in the crime section of newspapers that some pre-trial felon or parole-impaired soul managed to cut through or slip out of their device, and go on a rampage. Or simply disappear.

If that's true, that's worse than I think. I never thought this kind of toy is going to stop someone like Ghosn who can hire the help of special forces, but if it becomes known to Japan's justice system these toys don't even stop mundanes, they aren't going to improve the bail percentages much at all.

@sakurasukiToday 07:50 am JST

According to your link:

Maeda, who led a criminal investigation into a postal discount system abuse case involving the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, was indicted last week for tampering with data on a floppy disk seized during the probe.

It's already a crime.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Besides Ghosn is this a big problem in Japan?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Thanks a lot, Ghosn, for reducing the defence rights of the Japanese people!

Thank you Ghosn for increasing the defence rights of all the people in Japan.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I thought bail suspects awaiting trial are required to wear ankle bracelets and not allowed to go outside of a small parameter of their home? No wonder Ghosn made the Japanese look like idiots.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Why would a fact about ankle bracelets be off-topic? What is wrong with you?

They have ankle bracelets that send faxes to your supervisor as well as ankle bracelets that work by satellite.

GPS activated have to be in view of satellites. If you live in a mansion on the first floor of a building 50 stories high GPS will not often work and your cell phone often will not either. How dare you twit...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Bail should certainly be used rather than incarceration of the innocent (innocent until proven guilty) but tagging them in this way is again to assume guilt and therefore probability of absconding before trial, unless the Japanese judicial system is so distrusted by the vast majority of citizens as they are likely to scarper rather than face trial in a failed system.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Not a bad idea.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Bail is being granted in an increasing number of cases and the panel said a GPS system is needed to ensure that suspects appear in court.

While it is good to see that defendants are increasingly being given the rights which they should have had for the past 70 years, a lot work still needs to be done. The initial 23 day incarceration seriously needs looking at. For too long prosecutors in Japan have used incarceration as a tool of torture, while Japan's third rate judges have just rubber stamped this.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japanese used our GPS constellation satellite, Japan has GPS, but they depend on the US ,Japanese satellite acts repeater for GPS signal in concert with the US satellite Google Japan Zenith GPS satellite

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Maybe that would work with smaller crimes like supermarket thefts or so. But the big fish have plenty of possibilities to deactivate or manipulate the device and data. It’s of no use at higher crime levels.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

There's plenty of makers all around the world with decades of use and improvement.

It won't be easy to tamper the device.

But the big fish have plenty of possibilities to deactivate or manipulate the device and data.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The GPS monitors will be come a "Kawaii" item and people will wear them as a fad!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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