"The Japanese have one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world. But 99% of all people accused of breaking laws there are found guilty.
If you are innocent but accused of a crime, unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, there are few safeguards to protect you."

"Eichi Tamiya is a retired detective.
He says that in Japan the confession is regarded by police as 'the king of evidence'.
It is useful when a crime depends on a subjective feeling.
'For example, when one kills a person,' he says, 'only a confession can tell us whether the suspect was just trying to injure the victim who died, or whether he intended to kill them.
'Or take bribery, ' he says. 'Circumstantial evidence alone cannot explain whether or not the receiver knew why he was being given the money. For these kinds of problems that depend on how one feels inside we have to rely on confessions.'
So if the police think you have committed a crime they do all they can to make you confess."

"Yasuo Shionoya, a defence lawyer, says even if he suspects his client has been forced to make a false confession there is little he can do unless he can find something in the statement that cannot possibly be right.
'Innocent people do end up making confessions,' he says. 'It's rare but it's true it happens.' "

"In two years' time an important change will allow people a greater say in the justice system.
Ordinary people will join the judges on the bench as lay judges to hear the most serious cases.
Six of them will sit with three professional judges to try each case.
They will also, unlike juries in Britain, be able to help determine the sentence if the accused is found guilty of a crime."