quora:I've visited some friends of mine who got the minimum imprisonment. According to him the minimum penalty in Japanese prisons consist of these: early morning waking up Breakfast P1: Sitting on the ground without speaking, standing, making noise, laughing, and any other grumbling until the noon. You can just read books silently Lunch P1 position until evening. Dinner P1 position until sleep time
Years go by like this, you may have some small breaks for urgent needs in this daily routine. This daily flow makes you either a wise man or a psychopath.
Poster Comment:
Artemio Soto Breceda, Biomedical Engineering student. 1.2k Views
Following Mursita's answer, "perhaps the most striking feature of Japanese prisons is silence: both literal and the one caused by the seal of official secrecy surrounding them" [1] .
Prisons in Japan allow minimum (or none) human contact, including with other inmates and external visitors. According to Human Rights Watch/Asia, "many live in single cells and seldom have any contact with anybody other than their guards" [2]. Even if there is more than one prisoner per cell, they have limits on when they are allowed to communicate, and those who work in a prison factory are not allowed to look at one another, let alone have a conversation.
Only close relatives can visit the prisoners and they are allowed only one visit per month. During this visits even the prisoners at the higher level are not allowed physical contact with the visitors and their conversations are monitored by an officer who writes down every word.
The cells are very small. In some cases not even a futon (Japanese mattress [3]) can fit lengthwise in the cell and it has to be placed diagonally.
Practically everyone faces some sort of torture aimed to get a confession before they are sentenced, the prisoners are held in a detention center before getting a sentence, this period could last for years.
In general, prisoners face routine violations of basic human rights from the moment they are arrested.
NOTE: My answer was taken from the Human Rights Watch report written in 1995. The conditions might have changed, although this report [4] written for The Economist in 2015 makes me think it hasn't changed much. Footnotes [1] https://www.google.com.au/url?sa... [2] https://www.google.com.au/url?sa... [3] Futon [4] Silent screams
Don Murray, 10+ Year Expat; 35 Year Japanophile 3k Views Having never been to a Japanese prison, I of course have no first hand experience, but from what I've read, it is very much like a military prison - extremely regimented, strict, and in its own way, inhuman. That said, there is virtually no inmate prison violence or rape at all. If you're interested, there is one old article you can read here, and I sorely doubt anything is different today.
Tatarewicz: This daily flow makes you either a wise man or a psychopath
Funny in a quaint sort of way.