Entwicklungen im japanischen Strafrecht im Lichte der gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen

Abstract

The  talk  held  in  the  city  of  Saarbrucken  on  May 17,2010  on  the  invitation  by  the  German-Japanese Association of Jurists (DJJV) deals with two current developments in  Japanese criminal law.  For  one thing  there is  a  noticeable tendency towards  anticipatory punishment and  the extension of criminal liability to preparatory  activities. Increasingly, Japanese law  defines as punishable even actions whose detrimental influence on society is yet to be  proven by empirical studies. It seems that in Japanese society the call is getting louder  for an extended application of criminal sanctions in order to protect even abstract interests. This trend should be seen as a result of the conditions of modern society and does  not meet with any substantial critique.  

The second tendency that can be observed in Japanese criminal law today is that the  sentences imposed are becoming harsher, irrespective of whether the sometimes drastically more severe sanctions in fact have a preventative effect. This tendency concerns,  above all, verdicts in homicide cases and does not correlate with the empirical data according to which the number of homicides is actually decreasing. By tightening the laws,  the Japanese legislator and the Japanese jurisdiction react to voices in Japanese society  which  criticize  an  alleged  soft  stance  on  criminals and  a  perceived  neglect  of  the  victims’ interests. While the tendency towards anticipatory punishment can be accepted as a consequence of changing conditions in modern society, the tendency towards more  severe  punishments  seems  to  result  from  quite  problematic  developments  and  should  therefore be regarded with sound scepticism.