by With its glass facade and portico, Fuchū prison could be mistaken for a local government office. Inside, visitors enter an airy reception area where a banner declares support for the local football team, FC Tokyo.
But when you go through the heavily guarded door, it’s clear that this is a place of imprisonment. There are 1,700 prisoners on the walls, including a large number serving sentences of less than 10 years but who, in the words of prison literature, have “progressive criminal tendencies”.
The atmosphere is calm and orderly: cells with neatly folded bedding, piles of books and mint green walls. The silence is broken by the sound of guards greeting the prison’s chief executive, Hiroyuki Yashiro, as he heads a small number of media organizations, including Observerwho were given rare access to the front lines of the Japanese criminal justice system.
About a third of the men incarcerated at Fuchū, Japan’s largest prison, have links to the yakuza – Japanese crime syndicates. They are easy to see, sporting elaborate tattoos, sprawling but partially hidden by regulation white vests.
But it’s hard to imagine many of them chasing their nemeses through the streets of Tokyo, roughing up business owners for protection money or going head-to-head with members of a rival gang. Like many of the inmates here, they have long since joined the ranks of their criminal careers.
Fuchū, in the western suburbs of Tokyo, has seen a slight increase in the proportion of foreign prisoners due to a reduction in the overall size of the prison population but, according to Yashiro, the biggest challenge comes from its large and growing population of elderly men – criminals. a cohort that reflects broader demographic trends in Japan, where nearly a third of the 125 million population is aged 65 or older.
In Fuchū, 22% of the inmates fall into that age group, bringing with them necessities that can give the prison the feel of a care home, from the specially designed wet rooms to the nursing care qualities that younger inmates receive to take care of their older colleagues and, possibly, use them to get a job after release.
“Some of the older men have difficulty walking or bathing without assistance and have to take medication, which is why we get young men to help them,” says Yashiro, adding that over 70% require treatment of older prisoners for chronic illnesses such as. diabetes and heart disease and mental health conditions.
The age gap is visible in the prison workshops. In one, young men spend eight hours a day making bags and T-shirts, learning car maintenance, printing pamphlets or tending the kitchens and laundry facilities. In another case, however, elderly men are given no more demanding task than assembling plastic washing pegs to improve their strength and manual dexterity.
Among Fuchū’s most famous prisoners are Kenichi Shinoda, the octogenarian leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s most powerful crime syndicate, and Michael Taylor, a former US Green Beret who helped Carlos Ghosn flee Japan in 2019.
Taylor, who served a little more than a year of his sentence at Fuchū before being transferred to a US prison, has spoken since his release about the harsh conditions: extreme temperatures, lack of water, and a long list of rules and regulations – applicable. for all prisoners regardless of age – including not talking to fellow prisoners during work or meals, sitting for long periods in their cells, limited visiting rights and only 30 minutes of exercise a day.
Television is monitored and rationed, although Fuchū’s 370 foreign prisoners have access to English and Chinese radio broadcasts. Roll is called at 6.45am, and lights at 9pm. Prisoners bathe three times a week, and 15 at a time share a large communal bath.
Japanese prison regulations are based on the penal code of 1908, which has retained its draconian foundations despite several amendments. In a damning report on the experiences of female prisoners last year, Human Rights Watch said: “Japanese prisons impose harsh confinement conditions. People in prison are subject to strict regulations enforced by prison guards and threatened with solitary confinement for disciplinary infractions.
“Regulations in Japanese prisons are often strictly enforced in ways that risk exacerbating social isolation and causing psychological harm to incarcerated people. For example, people in prison are often restricted from interacting with other people in prison without permission, including looking in their direction or even making eye contact.”
But officials point out that there is not the overcrowding, drug abuse and violence that plague prisons in comparable countries – relative calm, they insist, is only possible if the rules are followed to the letter.
According to Fuchū director Yuiichiro Kushibiki, maintaining order is a trade-off between security and individual freedom. “This place works because everyone is treated the same,” he says. “There is no hierarchy among criminals here. Look around … there are about 60 men in this workshop, and only a few guards. That can only happen if prisoners follow the rules and, accordingly, respect the staff.”
In a workshop area, an aging inmate tries to throw beanbags over a table, while another slowly turns the pedals of an exercise bike. “We had to find another way to treat frail and elderly prisoners,” says Masanori Hayashi, the prison’s occupational therapist. “A lot of them can’t handle normal work or normal prison life.”
For some members of Fuchū’s aging population, release does not necessarily mean a new beginning in life. According to Yashiro, about 40% “do not have proper living arrangements” on the outside and will need welfare assistance.
The tour ends with a view of the visiting area, where inmates meet with family and legal representatives at least twice a month — and up to five times if they earn privileges for good behavior — in cubicles divided by screens.
Some older prisoners, however, will not set foot here. “They have no family left or who want to see them,” says Yashiro. “It’s much harder for older prisoners to adjust to the situation after they’ve been released. There are men here who have an easier life on the inside.”
