In 1999, a Brazilian resident of Japan named Milton Higaki was involved in an accident that killed a schoolgirl. Rather than face justice in Japan, he fled to Brazil fearing "discrimination as a foreigner in Japanese courts."
Although the domestic media quickly saw this as a case of crooked-foreigner-as-flight-risk, human rights attorney Yasuko Morioka took a more nuanced view, criticizing Japan's "lack of legal hearings that consider the rights of foreign(ers)."
While fleeing from justice is not to be condoned, cases like Higaki's are more understandable considering the increasing awareness of the scarier aspects of Japan's judicial system.
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