Japan to expand recorded interrogations by prosecutors in April

Should be 100% recorded by law. What, is there a shortage of hard drives in Japan? Also any single interrogation longer than 8 hours should result in instant dismissal.

Suspect interviews would be a better term than interrogations.

And why they aren’t all recorded still baffles me. All suspect interviews have been recorded in Australia since the early 90s.

said it will fully record voluntary interrogations of certain suspects,

In Japan, suspects that are not in custody can be interogated? No surprise because Japan use Japna hostage justice system tactics, where people being forced into confession.

Those recordings are available outside those office? Carlos Ghosn complain about long interogation that being reocorded and multiple attempt forcing confession by threatening family, however those recording still being kept in JGovt office.

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This article only mention about prosecution office, don't forget there's police too in Japan that can do interogation.

The term “suspect interview “ sounds much nicer but how do you translate it into Japanese? 被疑者面談? Let me know if you have any ideas.

Should be 100% recorded by law.

absolutely.

What, is there a shortage of hard drives in Japan?

Floppy disks mate.

And why they aren’t all recorded still baffles me. 

Same.

But there is another question- will these recordings be made available for examination and scrutiny? Because if they record the interrogations and not show them to anyone, then nothing will have changed.

I agree with this policy 100%. Welcome to the 21st Century.

I was arrested in Tōhoku in 2006 for assault and battery. A couple Japanese dudes in a bar started a fight with me over a girl, and I finished it.

There were no cameras in the parking lot so it was ‘he said she said’.

Anyway, they arrested me and took me back to the station and put me in an interrogation room and tried to get me to talk for six hours. The only thing out of my mouth was repeatedly asking for a lawyer. They eventually let me go after I demanded a call to the US Embassy (as a bluff, I knew the embassy would tell me to go pound sand).

They did the whole good cop bad cop routine. They had a relatively attractive female cop come in and be all nice, and then she’d leave and these two dudes would come in and scream at me.

One of them smacked me across the face at least 10 times over the course of my time there. Hard. At one point, he came in with gloves on, took one off, and smacked me in the face with a glove. I guess he’d seen one too many crappy movies.

If they had cameras, maybe I would’ve been treated differently.

@Aly, they should be shown in court when the matter goes to trial. In Australia the audio recording is made available to the suspect and arrangements can be made to view the video.

@Captain D, exactly why interviews need to be recorded so that doesn’t happen. A confession/admission under duress is usually inadmissible.

Recording interviews will protect both the police and the suspect in the long run.

, they should be shown in court when the matter goes to trial.

No argument here mate.

The Japanese legal system is an utter disgrace. Recording interviews is a small step in the right direction to correcting this perversion of Japan's constitution. Japan's Prosecutors s hi ould be guardians of the people,Not enemies of the people.

"Japan to expand recorded interrogations by prosecutors in April."

Great idea, it's called transparency.

Increasing investigations would be far more productive.

Great idea, it's called transparency.

Its not just this, there’s no transparency to ANYTHING here - job interviews, promotions, contracts - it’s always the same - “we don’t disclose the reasons.” The lack of transparency is seen as normal, or even a positive thing in Japan.

"voluntary" questioning isn't voluntary at all. The police surround you, and don't let you move until you agree to come with them.

Police station interrogations should be included in this as well. Most of the craziness happens in there.

Japan to expand recorded interrogations by prosecutors in April

Hopefully they will do it longer than just one month!