Why Japan's Conviction Rate is 99% (Actually Explained)
That Japanese Man Yuta3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2020–2020
explainer · general · evergreen · 2020–2020 on HN
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.
Recommended as a sourced, nuanced corrective whenever the Japanese justice system's conviction rate is raised.
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4 comments from Hacker News
You might want to hear what Yuta has to say about this[1]. It's not as black and white, basically. 1: ▶ this video
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: ▶ this video
I'm not Japanese, but I've seen this Japanese person explaining the situation informally but thoroughly. ▶ this 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.
The high conviction rate seems to be because cases are dropped unless the prosecution's confidence is very high, rather than letting it go to trial. ▶ this video