ABSTRACT
The Japanese Penal Code prescribes two types of imprisonment as penalties: mere imprisonment and imprisonment with labour. The practice of Japanese prisons forcing prisoners to make commercial goods for private companies has been strongly criticized in the USA and the UK on the grounds that it violates the international labour organisation forced labour convention. The production work in Japanese prisons mentioned is divided into two types: Firstly, operations for which a public corporation, the correctional association prison industry corporation, provides the state with raw materials and sells the finished products. Secondly, operations which the state contracts out to private companies and in which commercial goods are produced either in workshops in prisons or in workshops outside prisons and operated by private companies. In Japanese prisons, prisoners are required, without their consent being sought and for a gratuity of only about 3,900 yen per month, to engage in making products for private companies such as Mitsukoshi.
