[GoNative]

Just following on from my previous comments. We've all probably heard of the incredibly high conviction rates in Japan. On the face of it it may appear rather impressive having a conviction rate of 99%. You may think the police are incredibly good at their jobs able to put forth such amazingly convincing cases in court to secure the conviction. Nothing could be further from the truth. Basically if police are unable to extract a confession in the lenghty time they have to get it then a most of cases won't actually make it to court. Most court cases here are only after a confession has been secured. So basically the accused has admitted guilt and there is no real trial as such there is only a hearing to work out sentencing. It's one of the reasons why jury trials have basically been superfulous here because there is rarely a long process of weighing up the evidence.

So there is great pressure on the police from prosecuters to get the confession. Supposedly even one lost case can destroy a prosecutors career. Because why did they bring the case to court if they weren't sure they would win? To have done so shows very poorly on the prosecutor. So the whole process becomes open to corruption. The system here does not start with a presumption of innocence. In fact if the police have brought you in for interrorgation then you are pretty much assumed guilty and it's just a waiting game till you crack and confess.