The Politics of Police Detention in Japan
Consensus of Convenience
Clarendon Studies in Criminology Series

Filling a huge vacuum of scholarship on the Japanese criminal justice system, The Politics of Police Detention in Japan: Consensus of Convenience shines a spotlight on the remand procedure for criminal suspects in Japan, where the 23-day duration for which individuals can be held in police custody prior to being indicted is the longest amongst developed nations, with the majority of countries stipulating 4 days or less. Moreover, in practice, the average length of suspect detention in police cells is even longer due to multiple charges being imposed, and there is very little use of detention facilities independent of the investigation, with only 2% of suspects held in this way. Despite detention of this kind leading to criticism of Japan as a hotbed of false convictions, there has never been a systematic study of this divergent measure or its history. The Politics of Police Detention in Japan addresses this omission, first, by drawing on Japanese history-of-law scholarship to identify the origins of the modern day practice, tracing the source of legitimacy for the continuous remand of suspects with the police back to the Meiji era. There is further historical analysis addressing the post-war occupation of Japan under Allied forces through to the development of the National Police Agency, as each stage further undermines Japanese criminal procedure and limits reform. Secondly, the author conducts a political analysis of the mechanisms through which it is sustained, featuring extensive interviews with key players, including several Justice Ministers and other politicians, Ministry of Justice and Police officials, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and NGO representatives. As the first in-depth empirical investigation of Japan's police detention arrangements, this important and engrossing book highlights how a state sets the boundary between the liberty of individuals and the security of the community - a dichotomy that is far from unique to police detention.

Dr Silvia Croydon is Hakubi Research Fellow at Kyoto University, where she spends her time researching human rights in the country, as well as in East Asia more broadly. Her particular focus is criminal rights issues, and in addition to police detention, she has published works in both Japanese and English on topics such as victim impact statements, the death penalty and the introduction of lay judges to Japan. She has also written on the prospects for the existing gap in Asia with regards to a regional human rights mechanism to be filled. Each of these projects has been supported by evidence gathered during her extensive fieldwork in the region, undertaken whilst in her current position, as well as during a two-year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Tokyo, and during her doctoral studies at the University of Oxford, which were completed in 2010.