With its glass facade and portico, Fuchū prison could easily be mistaken for a local government office. Inside, visitors enter an airy reception area with a banner declaring support for the local football team, FC Tokyo.
But once you step through the heavy, guarded doors, you realise this is clearly a prison. Its walls hold 1,700 inmates, including many who have served sentences of less than 10 years but have what prison literature calls “advanced criminal tendencies”.
The atmosphere is calm and orderly: cells with neatly folded bedding, stacks of books, and spotless mint green walls. The silence is soothing that the prison chief, Hiroyuki Yashiro, ObserverWho have gained rare access to the front lines of Japan’s criminal justice system.
About a third of the men detained at Fuchū, Japan’s largest prison, Yakuza – Japan’s criminal organizations. They are easy to spot, with their elaborate, extensive tattoos only partially concealed by white vests.
But it is hard to imagine many of them chasing enemies through the streets of Tokyo, roughing up business owners for protection money or confronting members of a rival gang. Like many of the inmates here, they have long since entered the twilight of their criminal careers.
The proportion of foreign inmates at Fuchū, in Tokyo’s western suburbs, has increased slightly due to a decline in the overall prison population, but Yashiro says the biggest challenge comes from the large and growing population of older men. This group of offenders reflects broader demographic trends in Japan, where nearly a third of the 125 million population are 65 or older.
At Fuchū, 22% of prisoners fall into this age group, which brings with it needs that make the prison feel like a care home, from specially furnished wet rooms to nursing qualifications that younger prisoners acquire to care for their older counterparts, and perhaps skills they use to find work after their release.
“Some older men have difficulty walking or bathing without assistance and have to take medicine, so we bring in younger men to help them,” Yashiro says, adding that more than 70% of older inmates need treatment for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and mental health problems.
The age gap is evident in the prison workshops. In one, young men spend eight hours a day making bags and T-shirts, learning car maintenance, printing brochures or working in the kitchen and laundry facilities. But in another, older men are given tasks as difficult as assembling plastic clothes pegs to develop their strength and dexterity.
Fuchū’s most famous inmates include Kenichi Shinoda, the octogenarian leader of Japan’s most powerful crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, and former US Green Beret Michael Taylor, who helped Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan in 2019.
Taylor, who served just over a year of his sentence in Fuchū before being transferred to a prison in the United States, has spoken of the harsh conditions since his release: extreme temperatures, lack of water and a long list of rules and regulations that apply to all prisoners, regardless of age. These include not talking to other prisoners during work or meals, being required to sit in a certain position for long periods in cells, limited visitation rights and only 30 minutes of exercise per day.
TV viewing is monitored and rationed, but Fuchū’s 370 foreign detainees have access to radio broadcasts in English and Chinese. Roll call is at 6:45 a.m. and lights out at 9 p.m. Detainees bathe three times a week, with 15 at a time sharing a large communal bathroom.
Japanese prison regulations are based on a 1908 penal code that has remained strict despite several revisions. In a devastating report last year on the experiences of female prisoners, Human Rights Watch said: “Japan’s prisons impose harsh conditions. Inmates are subjected to strict regulations enforced by prison guards, with the threat of solitary confinement for disciplinary breaches.
“Regulations in prisons in Japan are often strictly enforced, worsening social isolation and creating psychological harm for detainees. For example, detainees are often prohibited from interacting with other detainees without permission, looking in their direction, or even making eye contact.”
But authorities point out that there is no evidence of the overcrowding, drug use and violence seen in prisons in similar countries, and argue that relative peace is possible only if the rules are followed to the letter.
For Yuiichiro Kushibiki, the warden of Fuchū, maintaining order is a matter of striking a balance between security and individual freedom. “This place works because everyone is treated the same,” he says. “There is no hierarchy among the criminals here. Look around you… there are about 60 men in this workshop and only a few guards. That can only happen if the prisoners follow the rules and in return establish respect with the staff.”
In one section of a workshop, an aging inmate tries to toss bean bags onto a table while another slowly pedals an exercise bike. “We needed to find a different way to treat the frail and elderly inmates,” says Masanori Hayashi, the prison’s occupational therapist. “Many of them cannot handle a regular job or normal prison life.”
For some members of Fuchū’s aging population, life after release will not necessarily herald a fresh start. According to Yashiro, approximately 40% do not have “suitable living arrangements” outside and will require welfare assistance.
The tour ends with a visit to the visiting area where detainees meet with their families and legal representatives at least twice a month, or five times a month if they earn privileges due to good behavior, in partitions separated by screens.
But some older prisoners will never set foot here. “They don’t have any family or anyone who wants to see them,” Yashiro says. “It’s much harder for older prisoners to adjust after they’re released. There are men here who find life easier inside.”