Criminal Justice and Collectivist Culture: Analyzing Japan's High Conviction Rate

This thesis examines the criminal justice system in Japan from a human rights lens. With the high conviction rate across all crimes as a focal point, this thesis will attempt to solve apparent issues with the system, effectively affording more rights back to defendants. Various shortcomings of the system include loose adherence to the presumption of innocence, incredibly long pre-trial detention periods, and the absence of plea bargaining. This thesis aims to investigate the injustices in the Japanese criminal justice system and explore potential solutions to address these issues, if any. Additionally, this thesis will analyze these issues with an emphasis on Japanese collectivism, and how this ties back to criminal injustice. These issues raise concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of the system, and the need for reforms to address them.