Nearly 88 percent of Japan police interrogations fully taped in FY 2018

May 23, 2019

Tokyo--Japanese police fully taped 87.6 pct of their interrogations in criminal cases subject to lay judge trials in fiscal 2018, a National Police Agency survey showed on Thursday.

The police across the country, on a trial basis, started full audio and video recording of interrogations in October 2016, ahead of the revised Code of Criminal Procedure going into effect on June 1 to oblige them in principle to tape full questioning sessions for criminal suspects to be tried under the lay judge system.

"As interrogators are increasingly getting used to being taped, we wouldn't be confused much (by the implementation of the law)," an NPA official said.

According to the agency, there were 3,266 criminal cases subject to lay judge trials in the year that ended in March. Of the total, interrogations were fully recorded in 2,860 cases while questioning sessions were partially or not taped at all in 406 cases.

As reasons for non-recording, problems with devices including their shortages were cited in 56 cases, suspects' refusal to be taped in 117 cases, and involvement of members of designated gang groups in 140 cases. The revised code exceptionally allows non-recording for those reasons.

Besides the exceptional cases, questioning was not taped due chiefly to device operation mistakes in 75 cases, failures to install equipment in time in 10 cases, and poor understanding of the mandatory taping system in eight cases.

The NPA said it will take steps to prevent such errors, including making senior investigators carry out thorough advance checks.

The survey also found that full recording was conducted in 3,479 of a total of 4,979 cases of questioning on suspects mainly with intellectual disabilities in fiscal 2018.

As of March 31, the police had some 3,500 recording devices, with 2,200 devices installed in interrogation rooms and 1,300 portable. In fiscal 2019, roughly 500 more devices will be supplied, the agency said. Jiji Press