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Why Japan's Conviction Rate is 99% (Actually Explained)

That Japanese Man Yuta · 81.8K views · 2020-01-28 · 11:10

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Overview

Yuta explains what Japan's 99% conviction rate actually means, noting that prosecutors drop cases unless confidence is very high. He argues that the number is widely misunderstood and cites his sources.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a sourced, nuanced corrective whenever the Japanese justice system's conviction rate is raised.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2020–2020

Topics

Law, policing & justiceSocial issues & culture
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conviction ratejapancriminal justiceprosecutionlegal system

What people said

kyuudou · 2020-05 · Recommendation

You might want to hear what Yuta has to say about this[1]. It's not as black and white, basically. 1: [VIDEO]

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jdtang13 · 2020-03 · Recommendation

This 99% number does not mean what people think it means. The Japanese prosecution system is a pipeline that strongly filters out unlikely-to-be-convicted cases from the very beginning. Long before you are convicted, you might not even be arrested, or your case gets dismissed earlier in the pipeline. Here is a video, with references, from a relatively trustworthy source: [VIDEO]

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diegoperini · 2020-02 · Recommendation

I'm not Japanese, but I've seen this Japanese person explaining the situation informally but thoroughly. [VIDEO] The premise is, yes 99% percent is a measured rate but also has no utility in a discussion if the other parts of the big picture is ignored.

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Sources

Video by That Japanese Man Yuta, played through YouTube.

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