True Crime Japan: Thieves, Rascals, Killers and Dope Heads: True Stories from a Japanese Courtroom

"From Serial to The Jinx to Making a Murderer, true crime fever is sweeping America. But how does crime and punishment differ in other cultures? True Crime Japan offers a close-up look at this little-documented aspect of Japanese society through a year's worth of criminal court cases in Matsumoto, a city 140 miles west of Tokyo. A middle-aged carpenter beats his 91-year old mother to death and goes to work the following day, leaving his wife to find the body. An 82-year old woman steals fried chicken and serves ten months in jail. Like most defendants in Japan, both plead guilty. Examining court hearings and interviews with these and numerous other defendants ranging from ruthless mobsters to average citizens their families, neighbors, and lawyers, Paul Murphy discovers that many similar crimes are committed, but in rather different ways and for very different motives. Murphy, a veteran journalist and long-time resident of Japan, gives readers a fascinating lens through which to view a cultureoften characterized by its emphasis on conformity, honor, and shame. Surprisingly, this eye-opening exploration of what happens between plea and sentencing, reveals Japan to be a land of unexpected individuality".
Examines the Japanese legal system where, despite existing in a shame-based conformist culture, courtroom cross-examinations are unusually blunt and provide insight into a society where private lives are rarely revealed.
A middle-aged carpenter beats his 91-year old mother to death and goes to work the following day, leaving the body for his wife to find. An 82-year old woman is jailed for 10 months for stealing fried chicken. Everyone pleads guilty. What happens between plea and sentencing is the subject of True Crime Japan. In this fascinating crime book journalist and longtime Japan resident Paul Murphy provides a glimpse of Japanese society through a year's worth of criminal court cases in Matsumoto, a city 140 miles to the west of Tokyo. The defendants in these cases range from ruthless mobsters to average citizens, often committing similar crimes in rather different ways, and for different reasons. Based on court hearings and interviews with the defendants, their families, neighbors and lawyers Murphy explores not only the motives of offenders, but the culture of crime and punishment in Japan.The resulting true crime book provides a lens through which to view this honor-shame based, conformist culture, and shows and how, in its role within that culture, the court system reveals Japan to be, surprisingly to some, a land of true individuals.