Volume 1, No. 7 (October, 1991), pp. 112-113

JAPANESE CRIMINAL JUSTICE by A. Didrick Castberg. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990 168 pp. Cloth $42.95.

Reviewed by Joseph Sanders, University of Houston Law Center

The central question of JAPANESE CRIMINAL JUSTICE is by now a well known one. Why is the Japanese crime rate so much lower than that of the United States, and indeed of most developed nations? That this is the case is beyond controversy. Compared to Japan, the United States larceny rate is 4 times greater, the rape rate is nearly 25 times greater and the robbery rate is a staggering 140 times greater (p. 12). Obviously, if we could we would we would like to emulate this success.

Castberg often focuses on the narrower question of whether the organization of the criminal justice system part of the explanation for the low Japanese crime rate. He is wise enough to recognize, however, that any answer to this question is confounded by another: what effect does Japan's low crime rate have on its criminal justice system? Throughout most of the following chapters he raises these twin questions about each aspect of the justice system.

The greatest strength of the book is its detailed presenta- tion of basic information about the components of the justice system. Individual chapters deal with general crime statistics, law enforcement, legal education, prosecution, defense, the judiciary, and corrections. They set forth fundamental similari- ties and differences between the criminal codes, the nature of trials (Japanese cases are heard for one or two hours each month over a period of months or even years, p. 90), and legal educa- tion (law is an undergraduate major in Japan as it is in much of Europe). For those unfamiliar with Japan the book is a valuable resource. The book is less successful, however, in answering its basic twin questions. Often the threads of cause and effect seem hopelessly tangled. Two examples from the chapter on corrections make this point. First, Japanese prisons are not overcrowded and, there- fore, the revolving door phenomena now prevalent in several American jurisdictions does not exist. Second, Japanese citizens still maintain a substantial belief in the rehabilitative ideal. A 1986 survey found that nearly 60% of the respondents felt that affection in addition to severity is the most effective treatment of prisoners (p. 114). To what extent are the above two facts the cause or the effect of differences in Japanese and American crime rates? The answer is so elusive one wonders whether it is even worthwhile to pose the question at this level.

More useful is the final chapter discussion which relates the crime rate to other features of Japanese society in general. Here Castberg mentions a number of factors that may affect various components of the crime rate. For example, the relative success of the Japanese economy may reduce property crimes. Strict

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gun control and a near monopoly on the use of weapons by the authorities may reduce violent crime. The low dropout rate and the length of the school year, the school week (five and one-half days) and the school day may reduce delinquency.

Ultimately, however, Castberg, like most commentators, places substantial importance on Japanese and American structural and cultural differences. If the United States is a relatively heterogeneous and individualistic society, Japan is a homogeneous and contextual society. A person's identity and place in society is tied to his or her position in a hierarchical group structure. The criminal justice system acts to support and reinforce this structure and these cultural values. Following Herbert Packer's terminology, the Japanese criminal justice system follows a Crime Control Model aimed at supporting group harmony rather than a Due Process Model aimed at protecting the individual from the state. Japan's crime rate, and the structure of its criminal justice system are both the consequence of the basic structure and values of the society.

If this analysis is correct, and in its basic argument I believe that it is, unfortunately the Japanese situation offers few solutions to Americans searching for ways to reduce the crime rate. Castberg basically agrees. This pessimistic conclusion should not distract, however, from the very useful contribution this book makes in providing us with the raw materials necessary to make comparisons between the Japanese and American criminal justice systems.


Copyright 1991