Episode 43: I Just Didn’t Do It (2007) (Guest: Naoko Akimoto)

Episode 43: I Just Didn’t Do It (2007) (Guest: Naoko Akimoto)

Jonathan Hafetz

Loading...

Media is loading
 

Description

This episode examines I Just Didn’t Do It, a 2007 Japanese film written and directed by Masayuki Suo. In the film, 26-year-old Teppei Kaneko (played by Ryo Kase) is traveling to a job interview on a packed Tokyo commuter train when a 15-year-old school girl, who was standing in front of him on the train and whom Kaneko hardly noticed, wrongly accuses him of groping (chikan). Kaneko is arrested. He is advised by a lawyer to plead guilty and pay a small fine, after which he will be freed. But Kaneko maintains his innocence and decides to fight the case, even though he is told that nearly everyone who takes their case to trial in Japan is convicted. The film then documents Kaneko’s nightmare odyssey through the Japanese criminal justice system, where he is detained for months and ultimately convicted despite significant problems with the prosecution's case. I Just Didn’t Do It provides important insights into the Japanese criminal justice system and a critique of how it operates, including its treatment of the presumption of innocence.

Guest: Naoko Akimoto

Naoko Akimoto is Associate Professor in Faculty of Law and Politics, at Rikkyo University, in Tokyo, Japan. Before joining the faculty of Rikkyo University, she was previously Associate Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, School of Law, in Taiwan and a Visiting Scholar at Washington University in Saint Louis. Professor Akimoto earned her Ph.D from the University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, Tokyo, Japan, where she concentrated on Anglo-American law. One area of Professor Akimoto’s teaching and research is on juries, and when I was previously a visiting scholar at Rikkyo University.

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction
2:52 Background on the Japanese criminal justice system
5:19 The crime of groping (chikan) in Japan
8:57 The pressure to plead guilty
17:12 The interrogation of suspects
18:46 Criminal defense lawyers in Japan
22:31 Why defendants tend to testify at trial
23:52 The prosecution’s disclosure obligations
28:30 How bail operates in Japan
31:04 The rotation of judges in Japan
34:06 The incentives in favor of conviction
38:44 Finding the defendant guilty despite reasonable doubt
43:20 The lay judge (saiban) system in Japan
46:54 A critique of Japan's treatment of the presumption of innocence

Further Reading:

Aronson, Bruce E. & Johnson, David T., “Comparative Reflections on the Carlos Ghosn Case and Japanese Criminal Justice,” 18 Asia-Pacific Journal 24(2) (Dec. 15, 2020)

Doi, Kanae, “Inquiry Needed into Japan’s Flawed Criminal Justice System,” Human Rights Watch (Nov. 4, 2024)

Japan Federation of Bar Associations, “The Japanese Judicial System”

Keiichi, Muraoka & Toshikuni, Murai, “Citizens on the Bench: Assessing Japan’s Lay Judge System,” Nippon.com (June 26, 2019)

Meehan, Susan, “I Just Didn’t Do It,” The Japan Society

Publication Date

5-20-2025

Disciplines

Law

Episode 43: I Just Didn’t Do It (2007) (Guest: Naoko Akimoto)

Share

COinS