Human rights in Japan

Japan is a constitutional monarchy. According to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) figures, the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau offices and civil liberties volunteers dealt with 359,971 human rights related complaints and 18,786 reports of suspected human rights violations during 2003. Many of these cases were ultimately resolved in the courts.

Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution guarantees equality between the sexes. The percentage of women in full-time jobs grew steadily during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Diet's passage of the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985 is of some help in securing women's rights, even though the law is a "guideline" and entails no legal penalties for employers who discriminate. (see Working women in Japan).

In several cases, the courts have acknowledged that confessions were forced and ordered prisoners released. The Japanese courts have had conviction rates that exceeded 99% in the past but that number has been curtailed in recent history due to changes in Japanese law. In common law countries which practice trial by jury, this is seen as indication that defendants are not receiving a fair trial. In civil law countries, where a magistrate decides the verdict, it is common because both the defense and the prosecutor can reliably predict the outcome of the trial. Japan also practices the death penalty, to which the U.N. objects, as do several prominent NGO's and the European Union (see Capital punishment in Japan).

Japanese society, by its Confucianistic ideology, generally hesitates to respect rights and dignities of younger people and newer participant people. It results in socially recognized abuse and bullying of younger people and children by elders in schools, institutes, and at home. Although the majority people of Japanese society are proud of the system as their proud tradition, there are considerable minorities of people who do not agree with the system.

There is much controversy surrounding the social and legal treatment of minorities. Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a homogeneous people, minorities do exist, and they often suffer discrimination. The largest indigenous minority are the two to four million hisabetsu buraku ("discriminated communities"), descendants of the outcast communities of feudal Japan. Other such minorities include the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Japan, and the people of Okinawa. Japan also has several hundred thousand native residents of Korean and Chinese descent who together with other foreign residents experience varying forms and degrees of discrimination.

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