Three months have passed since a new rule was put into practice in prisons nationwide to use the honorifics san and kun when addressing inmates by their last names.
While both prison guards and inmates were apprehensive about the rule at first, some of them say the practice has led to better relations between them and expressed hope it would help reduce friction.
The rule was introduced in the wake of an August 2022 discovery of repeated assaults of inmates by officers at the Nagoya Prison in Miyoshi, Aichi Prefecture.