Major Issues
Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution guarantees equality between the sexes. The percentage of women in full-time jobs grew steadily during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Diet's passage of the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985 is of some help in securing women's rights, even though the law is a "guideline" and entails no legal penalties for employers who discriminate. The law has, however, been used by women in several court cases seeking equal treatment in such areas as retirement age (see Working women in Japan).
The Japanese criminal justice system has been criticized on several grounds. Japanese police have the right to detain suspects for a long period. Although torture is rarely reported, this put suspects under psychological pressure to confess. They are detained and interrogated by police for periods which critics regard as unnecessary, though interrogation often induces confession which is later corroborated. In several cases, the courts have acknowledged that confessions were forced and ordered prisoners released. The Japanese courts have had conviction rates that exceeded 99% in the past (but that number has been curtailed in recent history due to changes in Japanese law). In common law countries which practice trial by jury, this is seen as indication that defendants are not receiving a fair trial. In civil law countries, where a magistrate decides the verdict, it is common because both the defence and the prosecutor can reliably predict the outcome of the trial. Japan also practices the death penalty, to which the U.N. objects, as do several prominent NGO's and the European Union (see Capital punishment in Japan).
Much controversy focuses on the social and legal treatment of minorities. Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a homogeneous people, minorities do exist, and they often suffer discrimination. The largest indigenous minority are the two to four million hisabetsu buraku ("discriminated communities"), descendants of the outcast communities of feudal Japan. Other such minorities include the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Japan, and the people of Okinawa. Japan also has several hundred thousand native residents of Korean and Chinese descent who together with other foreign residents experience varying forms and degrees of discrimination.
Read more about this topic: Human Rights In Japan
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