TOKYO – A year after Nissan vice president Carlos Ghosn escaped house arrest in Japan, Tokyo is still grappling with the question of how to keep defenders from jumping trust, with electronic monitoring among the top recommendations.
His December 2019 flight to Lebanon is just the most obvious example of a wider problem of Japanese defenders going missing after being released from pretrial detention. A bail was revoked for 127 people in 2018 – just over three times that of 2009.
But the escape of Gosn, which has captured headlines around the world, has been particularly difficult for Tokyo to swallow. The Ministry of Justice seeks to prevent a recurrence as well as to dispel criticism of what he and others call “hostile justice.”
The matter was referred to the ministerial Legislative Council in February by then-Justice Minister Masako Mori. A debate within a panel of experts set up by the committee has focused on a proposal to require protectors to wear GPS drivers.
This is not uncommon abroad. Ankle bracelets are used with electronic tags in the UK, with an analysis sent out to private sector companies. Courts in France, South Korea and some parts of Canada can order defendants to wear detectors as a condition for their release.
The idea did not attract many complaints to the expert panel, and members offered many suggestions as to where and when people should be monitored, as it was noticed that 24-hour surveillance would reveal privacy concerns. Options being considered include a warning sound if the suspect enters certain places, such as airports, or leaves a particular place of residence.
Establishing a system to enable such an investigation would be a challenge. There is already so much to be done in courts, ministry staff and prosecutors “that it would be difficult to monitor the movements of a suspect around the clock,” a senior ministry official said.
If Japan is doing the task for the private sector, as is being done in the UK, strict control will be needed to keep place data secure. It will also be a matter of ensuring that the police are notified promptly if a detective finds a problem.
The panel expects to issue a report on the issue for the ministry in 2021.
At the same time, Japan is beginning to move away from holding a long distance. The percentage of people convicted between conviction and sentence rose sharply to 32.1% in 2018 from 15.6% in 2009.
This trend is thought to stem from a change of opinion among judges, with more of them supporting the idea of letting suspects so they can properly prepare for trial.
But challenges remain. “While the percentage of people granted bail has gone up, Japan still holds suspects for much longer than other countries in white and other crimes,” said Hosei University law professor Tomoyuki. Mizuno.
“It would be better to take steps that reduce the risk of suspects blocking evidence, so an even higher percentage of people can be released on bail,” he said. The idea would be to use GPS as a way to encourage more transmissions. “