With regards to the April 10 article "Ex-stable master's prison term reduced," it was a total shock to learn that the Nagoya High Court reduced convicted former sumo stable master Junichi Yamamoto's sentence by one year. According to the presiding judge, he "deserved" it because he paid ¥15.8 million to the family of Takashi Saito, the sumo student that he and three of his students murdered by striking him repeatedly with baseball bats and a beer bottle. The article does not explain whether that was part of a pre-trial agreement with the family, but judging by the disappointment of the victim's father, it seems not.

Reducing the sentence is something that the high court must have done because it is a normal legal procedure in Japan. I mean, judges just don't make stuff up. There must be something in the Japanese criminal law manual that states that ¥15.8 million is the current price for getting a one-year reduction of a prison term for killing someone. I can assume that, should Yamamoto be later able to pay an additional ¥15.8 million for each of the remaining five years of his sentence, plus the ¥49 million in initial redress money, about ¥145 million total, he will be able to walk free. ¥145 million: That appears to be the price for getting away with robbing someone of their life and causing a lifetime of sorrow to a family.

After reading the April 17 article "Four Japanese drug smugglers executed," I had to wonder about Japan's government and its people's sense of values. The battles Japan chooses to fight internationally (tuna fishing moratoriums, whaling rights) speak volumes as to where Japan feels it should spend its political capital.

I wonder if the four Japanese nationals who were executed in China recently received fair trials. I wonder if there was coercion involved by authorities in obtaining confessions. I want to know the evidence against the accused, how it was obtained and whether they were given a chance to refute it. I want to know if these men were given adequate legal counsel. I want to know if they fully understood the proceedings. I wonder how many others involved in similar crimes received lesser sentences and if so what the mitigating circumstances were.

Perhaps these men accused of drug smuggling were in fact guilty and received fair trials. If so, the Japanese government had little choice but to accept the Chinese court's decisions. Providing answers to the questions surrounding these cases, however, is something all Japanese deserve and should demand from their government.

I find it rather strange that The Japan Times should express concerns about the recent execution of Japanese nationals who were rightly convicted of drug smuggling on Chinese soil as being a potential tinderbox for sparking renewed tensions between the two countries.

Drug smuggling wherever you go in this world is wrong. It is no less illegal and criminal just because it was committed by Japanese. As long as Japan understands this, why would there be renewed tensions? Japanese drug smugglers feeding the Chinese people with opium are no less criminals than a disgruntled Chinese factory worker lacing Japanese gyoza with toxic chemicals.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 1, 2010
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