ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and interprets certain key aspects of the legal culture of Japanese prosecutors by systematically analyzing evidence primarily survey evidence. It shows that Japanese and American prosecutors have markedly different work objectives and that, in important respects, they also hold different beliefs about how to exercise their discretion to charge. The chapter summarizes the suspension of prosecution doctrine and examines prosecutors' beliefs about the exercise of discretion. In 1994-95, surveyed 235 Japanese prosecutors and assistant prosecutors about a variety of work-related attitudes and behaviours. Prosecutor respondents were overwhelmingly male, as is the procuracy on the whole. The chapter focuses on prosecutor culture – that is, beliefs and attitudes about prosecutor behaviour. That Japanese prosecutors remain committed to a rehabilitative ideal is less remarkable than the extent to which American prosecutors seem to have foresworn it. Previous works on criminal justice in Japan emphasize several distinctively 'Japanese' factors that influence suspension of prosecution decisions.
