ABSTRACT
The effects of a high and rapidly increasing imprisonment rate have received considerable attention in the United States. The United States places greater reliance on imprisonment as a means of dealing with criminals, but the degree of greater reliance has varied over the years. Prison environments are havens of tranquility and inmates are remarkably submissive to the keepers. Comparative criminology emphasizes the principle that criminal justice policy operates within the contours of sociocultural and legal systems varying among societies. Japan's sociocultural system influences exerted on groups and the members so that the multitude of behaviors fit together in maintaining the social order of Japan. The social patterns and cultural standards of Japanese society and its members will be sketched below because of the vital importance in explaining Japan's reluctant use of penal incarceration. A cultural explanation does not take into account the workings of the Japanese criminal justice system.
