JAPAN: Healing the Wounds of Crime

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 2 2005 (IPS) - A long overdue move to help the families of crime victims meet with offenders has been launched by a group of lawyers and experts in a bid to pave the way for a process of healing and reconciliation that they say is almost non-existent in Japan.

"Reconciliation is never easy and our activities face a long and hard road. But it is important to have a mechanism that supports the meeting between perpetrators and families that experience the horror of crime if the world is to become a better place," said lawyer Noriaki Miki, a member of the newly established Centre for Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) based in Osaka, 520 kms west of Tokyo.

The push for a centre that seeks a direct dialogue between offenders and victims comes against a growing backdrop of vicious crimes in Japan.

Experts point out that several brutal murders and sexual offences committed against minors – such as the May arrest of a 24-year-old man who kept an 18-year-old girl chained in his apartment as a sex slave for more than three months – have created a climate of fear and anger among the public.

The government has reacted by passing new laws to imprison juvenile offenders at an earlier age, control the movements of released sex offenders, while prosecutors have proposed revising the penal code to impose longer prison sentences – from the current 15 years to 20 years if the perpetrator is found guilty of a serious crime.

Proposals for stricter laws have also gained support from the public: more than 82 percent of Japanese favour the death penalty according to a poll released by the government in February, the first time that sentiment has climbed over 80 percent.

The survey showed that support was based on the fear that abolishing capital punishment would lead to more heinous crimes.

But analysts say such public sentiment is a dangerous sign for the future, and could be tempered by a system of reconciliation. "The need for a system that allows both sides of the crime to meet is a significant step in the process of building remorse in offenders and forgiveness on the part of the families. This system is of utmost importance to stop crime," said Ikuzo Maeno, a lawyer and member of VOM, a non-governmental organization (NGO).

VOM made a tentative start in that direction in May by calling on victims of crime to seek the group’s help in meeting with offenders.

The next step in the process would be a series of interviews between VOM and the perpetrator of the crime to make sure the offender shows signs of remorse. That would be followed by several meetings between victim(s) and offender, with VOM carefully monitoring process towards final reconciliation.

"We know it is an uphill struggle till the meeting can be successful in the sense of ultimately capturing reconciliation and a fresh start. So we have begun with addressing victims of light crimes, such as street brawls or company in-fighting, as the first step," said Miki.

Akiko Takada, spokesperson for the group Forum Against the Death Penalty, says the latest move by lawyers is crucial to combat rising tension in Japanese society.

"Our research has shown it takes years to foster change in people but they do come around in many cases," she explained.

Forum says the latest such case was a letter finally sent in April by the father of a girl who was raped and killed by a 19-year-old man in 1986.

The offender, now serving life imprisonment, had for years sent letters to the parents expressing remorse for his crime and asking their forgiveness but had made no headway.

Activists also blame the government of blocking the path to reconciliation by withholding detailed information from the families of victims of crime, resulting in hardened emotions that can lead to higher crime rates in a toughened society.

On the other hand, prisoners in death row and their families are also kept in the dark till the day they die, blocking any opportunity to build forgiveness.

Hirokazu Hasegawa, a professor of clinical psychology at Tokai Women’s College, spent time with Mamoru Takuma, who was hanged in 2004 for the massacre of eight elementary school children in 2001. Hasegawa says at the end of the trial the families of the victims remained sad and angry, despite the offender receiving the death penalty.

On May 24, Mamoru Hase, the father of six-year-old Jun, who was beheaded by a 12 year-old boy in 1997, wrote a letter to the ‘Asahi’ newspaper saying he has not forgiven the offender, despite him writing several letters apologising for the act.

As well, a book, ‘Where is the Support for Crime Victims?’ written by parents of a seven-year-old girl killed in the massacre, details the lack of official support for families of victims, and expresses their stance of not forgiving the perpetrator despite the murderer’s remorse.

These examples reveal the challenge facing proponents of reconciliation.

"Our movement is a small step in the difficult process of putting together the offender and the victim in Japan, which has hitherto not debated the process publicly, but we must keep trying," said Miki. (ENDS/IPS/AP/CR/IP/SK/ML/05)

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