Why Japan's Conviction Rate is 99% (Actually Explained)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a sourced, nuanced corrective whenever the Japanese justice system's conviction rate is raised.
What it is
Yuta explains what Japan's 99% conviction rate actually means, noting that prosecutors drop cases unless confidence is very high. He argues that the number is widely misunderstood and cites his sources.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2020 to 2020.
What Hacker News said
Recommends diegoperini · 2020-02 · on “Japan’s Lost-and-Found System”
I'm not Japanese, but I've seen this Japanese person explaining the situation informally but thoroughly. [this video] The premise is, yes 99% percent is a measured rate but also has no utility in a discussion if the other parts of the big picture is ignored.
Recommends jdtang13 · 2020-03 · on “Problems with Japan's Covid-19 reports”
This 99% number does not mean what people think it means. The Japanese prosecution system is a pipeline that strongly filters out unlikely-to-be-convicted cases from the very beginning. Long before you are convicted, you might not even be arrested, or your case gets dismissed earlier in the pipeline. Here is a video, with references, from a relatively trustworthy source: [this video]
Recommends kyuudou · 2020-05 · on “U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan”
You might want to hear what Yuta has to say about this[1]. It's not as black and white, basically. 1: [this video]
Cites jbay808 · 2020-02 · on “Japan’s Lost-and-Found System”
The high conviction rate seems to be because cases are dropped unless the prosecution's confidence is very high, rather than letting it go to trial. [this video]