At a news conference Nov. 12, Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama apologized for an incident that occurred at Nagoya Prison in September, when five guards allegedly used excessive force on a prisoner, who subsequently spent three weeks in hospital. Moriyama told the press it wouldn't happen again. She also said that she had studied the situation and was told "that such a thing hasn't happened anywhere else."

The first followup question that comes to mind is: Who told her that no such thing has happened anywhere else? None of the reporters asked it, though anyone with the slightest understanding of Japan's prison system would know that Moriyama was obfuscating. But that's to be expected, since obfuscation about Japan's correctional system is built into the penal law itself.

According to the Prison Law, which was enacted in 1908, Japan's penal administration system adheres to mikko shugi, which translates as "a policy of secretiveness." In his book, "Japan's Prisons," Koichi Kikuta, a professor of criminology at Meiji University, states that the law was made to be vague. The purpose of keeping prison life hidden from public view, according to Kikuta, is that the authorities do not want to "trouble the conscience" of the citizenry. The effect is "the same as putting a lid on a jar of something that smells bad."