SeminarWednesday 13 March 2019
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Prevention of Recidivism: Trends in Japanese Criminal Policy
ドリンクレセプション 7:00pm – 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the British Japanese Law Association 主催
One of the most serious current issues in criminal policy in Japan is the prevention of recidivism. Traditionally, Japan has a unique probation system which has greatly contributed to preventing recidivism, administered by both Professional Probation Officers (“PPOs”), hogo kansatsu kan, and Volunteer Probation Officers (“VPOs”), hogo-shi. But in 2016 a new law, “the Act to Promote Prevention of Recidivism,” was enacted to decrease the rate of recidivism further. Andrew Watson discussed the basics of the Japanese probation system and the challenges it faces, with comparisons to probation in England and Wales. Taichi Yoshikai then discussed the Act and the current plan which was drawn up in 2017 by the Cabinet in response to the Act, with consideration of key characteristics of the Japanese criminal justice system.
This seminar was arranged in cooperation with the British Japanese Law Association.
コントリビューターについて
Dr Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson’s research includes probation in Japan, aspects of juvenile justice, the jury system in interwar Japan and the modern mixed courts of lay persons and professional judges, which were introduced in Japan about a decade ago. He has published several articles covering these areas. He previously taught at Niigata, Tokyo Metropolitan and Chuo Universities and more recently, has been a visiting scholar at Osaka City University for three consecutive summer terms. He has also taught Japanese Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Andrew was a lecturer at the Inns of Court School of Law, and then at the College of Law, Bloomsbury and Moorgate. Before academia, he worked as a solicitor in a Law Centre before becoming a practicing barrister. He is now employed at Sheffield Hallam University in the Department of Law and Criminology.
Professor Taichi Yoshikai
Taichi Yoshikai is currently a law professor at the Kokushikan University Faculty of Law in Tokyo. He specializes in criminal procedure, juvenile law and criminal policy. He gained a Master’s degree from Waseda University in 1995 for his work on the Offender Treatment Law. He passed the Japanese National Bar Examination in 1993, and after receiving his Master’s degree, he worked as a public prosecutor for 17 years from 1997 to 2014. During that time, he gained first-hand experience of the Japanese criminal justice system through his involvement in investigations and trials for various criminal cases and visited England as a Short-Term Overseas Researcher dispatched by Japan’s National Personnel Authority to conduct research on the life imprisonment system in England. He published a series of articles describing various aspects of the criminal justice systems in Japan and England, such as the discretion of public prosecutors, conditional cautions, and life imprisonment.