The Yakuza on Trial

Sentencing Patterns of Members of Japanese Organized Crime

Abstract

The Japanese criminal justice system, traditionally considered benevolent and reintegrative, has recently been the object of academic debate for its alleged increased punitivist tendencies: scholars have talked about processes of genbatsu-ka, popular punitivism and increased penalism. In particular, following the set of judicial reforms introduced since the early 2000s, concerns have been raised on sentencing practices within the Japanese judiciary. The growing harshness of anti-organized crime regulations and the decreasing membership of the yakuza seem to confirm both the increased severity of the Japanese judiciary as well as the validity of an iron-fist approach with crime. However, a closer analysis shows how the effects of these reforms do not represent a turning point in the history of the Japanese judiciary, but rather represent a political tool used by the state to justify its increasing tendency towards authoritarianism.

Using governmental data such as the White Paper of the Police and the White Paper on Crime by the Ministry of Justice, as well as data collected during fieldwork involving Japanese experts and members of the yakuza, this article considers whether the supposedly increased harshness of the Japanese criminal justice system has had an impact on the sentencing patterns of members of the yakuza. The analysis highlights that judicial reforms and new anti-yakuza provisions did not determine a tightening of sentences against members of organized crime: in fact, while confession and conviction rates remain extraordinarily high, prosecution rates have decreased for both yakuza and common offenders. At the same time, the introduction of new provisions that aim to punish external participation in criminal groups contributed to the over-expansion of institutional surveillance over private citizens. Reflecting on central aspects of punitivism and leniency, and how these terms are used in discourse on sentencing practices and how they may be deliberately constructed to gain political consensus, this article ultimately expands its analysis to the broader picture of dynamics between law, politics, and other social forces in Japan.