The Justice Ministry is investigating allegations that a former Nagoya Prison inmate smuggled out a list containing information on nearly all of the institution's inmates shortly before his release earlier this year, ministry and prison sources said Thursday.
The list reportedly contains the names of some 1,900 inmates, their personal identification numbers, the kinds of labor they performed in prison and their work sites, the sources said.
The A3-size, confidential list was one of 44 copies printed by the prison on April 19, they said.
The copies, which were printed to help prison officials keep track of inmates while they engage in prison labor, were kept at each work site and other locations inside the prison, they said.