Japan repatriated more than 400 prisoners over 16-year period

Wow. Those prisons for foreigners sure sound swell . . .

they'd sound swell if it wasn't the case that japan still institutes forced manual labor, basically unpaid (it's paid at the rate of something like 1,000yen per month). prisoners are required to buy their own basic toiletries such as soap, toothpaste, etc. which are all sold at normal consumer prices.

then there is the problem everyone is starting to realize is true - that the japanese justice system incarcerates anyone, regardless of whether they've had a fair trial or not. with the conviction rate as high as it is, it's pretty much a certainty that many foreign prisoners in japan are actually there without having committed a crime. perhaps they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or perhaps they committed a minor infraction and had the book thrown at them, perhaps false confessions, who knows, but since the prosecution has a carte blanche and police interrogations are not recorded, we'll never know.

you won't find a lot of iranians begging to be transferred back to iran. the iranian embassy actively protects its citizens from being deported from japan to iran in many criminal cases. turkey as well. from what i understand, some of these people face life in prison or death if they ever return to iran for whatever crimes they've committed or are accused of. most of them are in for drug trafficking.

Oh these poor criminals just can't catch a break in life. Imagine having to actually do something constructive with your time rather than lounge around all day as if it's an extended vacation from work.

Now this is a suspiciously-timed article.

And no author byline.

As long as they go back to the death penalty, it sounds like a good idea.

Oops, I meant don’t go back.

Disappointingly, the article fails to mention the feather beds, soft toys at bedtime, designer prison wear and wide range of desserts available from the sweet trolley.

Strange that China is not mentioned in the article. I distinctly recall reading some years ago that a Chinese man convicted of murdering several people in Kyushu was sent back to China and executed there.

No problem with prisoners working in HARD and FORCED manual labor, that is kinda the point of being in jail, its aint a retirement home with free meals and blankets. You supposed to be working HARD and hopefully even harder to repay your debt to society , and yes your work also should cover the cost of your hotel services and food.

It is kinda ridiculous to ponder to muslim ( do they also provide jewish services? ) or provide extra services such as translations though ... repatriation also shouldnt be an option one can chose , if the punishment in other country is similar or stricter.. they should be automatically put on a plane.

@Zichi

total population in Japanese prisons including those in pretrial detention and remand is a bit under 52,000 out of a population of 127M as of July 2018. 2500 or so of those are foreigners. The prison population has been falling for the past 50 years in line with consistently declining number of all crimes and updated figures will likely show a further decline. Since France is so much in our news nowadays, you might be interested to know that as of Jan 2019 there were a bit over 70K in prison including pretrial detention/remand in France. 22% of those are foreigners. And curiously, given how much pretrial detention is in the news here, about 20K of them are being held in pretrial detention which at 29% of the total is an above average percent for EU. For comparison, England and Wales has over 82K in prison with 10% in pretrial detention. But if you add Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, etc, there are an additional 11K in prison with about 20% of those in pretrial detention. 11% of those are foreigners. Here is some other interesting facts. How crowded are the prisons (in terms of occupancy rate) and all that overcrowding entails ; Japan 66%, UK 110%, France 116%.

Very happy to hear this. The last thing Japan needs to criminals.