《日本 有罪推定》 日本低犯罪率背后深层的因素

Japan is known for being one of the countries with the lowest crime rate in the world. Numerous reasons are given for this such as the illegality of weapons a smaller wealth gap or unspoken rules of conduct that people live by.

日本被认为是世界上犯罪率最低的国家之一。许多人将这归结于持枪非法、贫富差距较小以及人们潜意识的生活习惯之类的原因。

But one other factor behind such low crime could have a darker reason to it: fear of the Japanese legal system.

但是在这么低的犯罪率背后另一个更深层的因素是：人们对日本法律系统的畏惧。

Al Jazeera news recently put out a documentary on that very subject showing one of the scarier parts of Japan that most people don’t have experience with. The full video is below.

最近半岛电视台资讯发布了一部纪录片展示了大多数人没经历过的日本最恐怖的部分之一。完整视频如下。

The documentary follows the story of Keiko Aoki a woman who in 1995 was convicted of setting her house on fire and intentionally murdering her daughter to collect life insurance money. Her conviction was based solely on her and her husband’s written confessions that they claimed were made under extreme duress.

这部纪录片讲述了一位叫洼田青木的女人的故事，她于1995年因涉嫌在自己的房子里放火并蓄意谋杀她的女儿以获取人寿保险的钱而被判为有罪。她的罪名仅仅因为她和她丈夫在他们受到极端胁迫下写的忏悔书就成立了。

Keiko and her husband spent the next 20 years in jail claiming they were innocent the entire time. It wasn’t until earlier this year that the verdict for their retrial was finally delivered proclaiming them not guilty.

惠子和她丈夫在接下来的20年牢狱生涯中，一直声称自己是无辜的。但是直到今年早些时候，对他们案件重审的判决书才下达，终于宣判他们无罪。

But why would someone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Put simply the documentary claims that the Japanese legal system is designed to extract confessions no matter what.

但是为什么会有人对他们没有犯下的罪行认罪？简单地说，这部纪录片声称，日本司法系统的设计就是让你采取各种手段逼供。

In Keiko’s case she was held in an interrogation room with police investigators who constantly yelled and berated her for 12 hours straight. She was never allowed to see a lawyer. Eventually she was told by police that her husband had already confessed to the crime so she should too. Mentally destroyed she gave up and wrote a confession dictated to her by police.

具体到惠子的案件，她被关在审讯室里，警方调查人员连续对她咆哮了12小时，不停地痛骂她。她根本没法见律师。最后，警察告诉她，她丈夫已经认罪了，所以她也得认罪。心理防线彻底崩溃的她，放弃了抵抗，按照警察的授意写了认罪书。

Keiko claims that confusion exhaustion and the guilt of not being able to save her daughter came together to make her admit to a crime she was innocent of.

惠子声称，困惑、疲惫不堪和没有把女儿救回来的负疚感交织在一起，令她承认了一桩其实她完全无辜的罪行。

In Japan anyone can be held by police for 23 days without being charged. Lawyers are not allowed in interrogation rooms and police are not required to record any of the interrogation sessions. As Hiroshi Ichikawa a former Japanese prosecutor described investigators can just rotate in and out as they get tired of questioning the suspect until he or she is so mentally exhausted that they will admit to anything to make it stop.

在日本，任何人都可以在没有被起诉的情况下，被警方羁押23天。在此期间律师不允许进入审讯室，而警察也无需记录任何审问内容。一位名叫市川浩志的日本前检察官说，调查人员如果审问犯罪嫌疑人累了，就可以换班，直到他或她心力交瘁最后什么都认了才停止。

But why is the Japanese legal system so intense when it comes to extracting confessions from the accused? Ichikawa claims it’s because there’s immense pressure on police and prosecutors to obtain a guilty verdict. In a country with a near universal conviction rate no one wants to be the only lawyer who failed to get a guilty verdict so they’ll do anything to get it.

但是为什么日本的司法系统如此热衷于对被告逼供？市川说，那是因为对警方和检察官提出有罪指控的压力实在太大了。在一个定罪率几乎百分百的国家，没人愿意当那个拿不到有罪指控的律师，所以他们都竭尽全力去做有罪指控。