Japanese Criminal Justice: A Comparative Legal History Perspective

The Carlos Ghosn case has focused the world’s attention on Japan’s criminal justice system. In particular, the system has been subject to intense criticism, condemning its reliance on confessions in investigation, and for proof of guilt. The investigative approach of using physical restraints on suspects and defendants to coerce confessions is critically referred to as “hostage justice”. While the Japanese Ministry of Justice and the Public Prosecutor’s Office have responded to such criticisms by arguing for the uniqueness of the legal system, the problematic nature of this aspect of Japanese criminal justice cannot be denied, as noted by past false convictions and other evidence. The aim of this study is to examine why there are such features from a comparative legal history perspective. Although there have been various examinations of these characteristics of Japanese criminal justice, there has been little mention of its history. When compared to the German history of the abolition of torture, and the move away from reliance on confessions in the German criminal justice system, the historical factor in Japan becomes clear. When torture was abolished in Germany, people looked for alternative means of proof, and, after many twists and turns, arrived at the principle of free evaluation of evidence. Japan saw no such struggle, however, and there is little consideration of alternative means of proof to confessions. These are the key findings of this study. In conclusion, “torture” in a sense has not yet been abolished in Japan

Computational Method of Rapidly Propagating Cracks Using Continuous Dislocations Model

AbstractThe method of continuously distributed dislocations model is applied to the problem of rapidly propagating cracks. Weertman's solution of a running edge dislocation considering the effect of inertia (1961) has been utilized. A semi-infinite length crack running in a strip with clamped sides was analyzed. The singular integral equations representing the boundary condition of this problem were solved numerically by the newly proposed method based on the boundary collocation. The stress intensity factor was calculated and it has been made clear that precise solutions can be obtained even when the number of the collocation points is small. The crack opening displacement was also calculated and a startling result has been obtained. In the neighborhood of the crack tip, the crack opening displacement exceeds the applied displacement between both sides of the strip

Guided Lock of a Suspended Optical Cavity Enhanced by a Higher Order Extrapolation

Lock acquisition of a suspended optical cavity can be a highly stochastic process and is therefore nontrivial. Guided lock is a method to make lock acquisition less stochastic by decelerating the motion of the cavity length based on an extrapolation of the motion from an instantaneous velocity measurement. We propose an improved scheme which is less susceptible to seismic disturbances by incorporating the acceleration as a higher order correction in the extrapolation. We implemented the new scheme in a 300-m suspended Fabry-Perot cavity and improved the success rate of lock acquisition by a factor of 30

Effect of Hyperprolactinemia Induced by Prolactinoma (MtT/F84) on the Accessory Sexual Organs of Male Rat

A new transplantable prolactinoma, designated MtT/F84 has been serially passaged in female F344 rats. Persistently high levels of serum prolactin could be achieved in male F344 rats by MtT/F84 inoculating under the skin. This investigation deals with the effects of hyperprolactinemia upon the accessory sexual organs of male rats during puberty. The weights and the concentrations of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the dorsal prostate increased significantly in rats with moderate hyperprolactinemia (756 ± 179 ng/ml), but they in rats with marked hyperprolactinemia (3612 ± 1089 ng/ml) were similar t.o those of control rats. In contrast, serum testosterone levels (0.52 ± 0/17 ng/ml) in those of hyperprolactinemic rats were significantly decreased compared to that of controls (1.11± 0.13 ng/ml). These results suggested that the growth-promoting effect of prolactin on the rat prostate mediated through the action of androgen varied according to the degree of hyperprolactinemia

SERCA2aの持続的過剰発現は、生理的条件下では膀胱機能に影響を及ぼすが、膀胱出口部閉塞亜急性期の病的条件下では膀胱機能に影響しない

A functional impairment of the bladder and heart in a decompensated state caused by a pressure overload is accompanied by a decrease in the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA2). The beneficial effects of SERCA2 overexpression in preserving cardiac functions have been previously reported. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of overexpressed SERCA2 on bladder functions under physiological and pathological conditions using partial bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in SERCA2a transgenic Wistar rats (TG). Bladder cystometry and western blot analysis were performed using the wild-type Wistar rats (WT), TG, and BOO models (WTBOO and TGBOO). Persistent overexpression of SERCA2 induces reduced bladder compliance without hypertrophy in TG. BOO induces reduced bladder compliance and hypertrophy in WT and TG in the sub-acute phase, but persistent overexpression of SERCA2a in TG does not aggravate the bladder compliance and hypertrophy. In conclusion, SERCA2a overexpression affects bladder functions under physiological conditions, but not in BOO-induced sub-acute pathological conditions.博士（医学）・甲第623号・平成26年5月28