Washington International Law Journal Volume 20 Number 3 6-1-2011 To Plea or Not to Plea: The Benefits of Establishing an Institutionalized Plea Bargaining System in Japan Priyanka Prakash Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Criminal Procedure Commons Recommended Citation Priyanka Prakash, Comment, To Plea or Not to Plea: The Benefits of Establishing an Institutionalized Plea Bargaining System in Japan, 20 Pac. Rim L & Pol'y J. 607 (2011). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol20/iss3/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington International Law Journal by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Compilation © 2011 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal Association TO PLEA OR NOT TO PLEA: THE BENEFITS OF ESTABLISHING AN INSTITUTIONALIZED PLEA BARGAINING SYSTEM IN JAPAN Priyanka Prakash† Abstract: Plea bargaining, the practice that permits the prosecution and defense to negotiate reduced charges or a lighter sentence in exchange for the defendant’s guilty plea, is a bedrock component of the criminal justice system in many nations. The Japanese legal community, however, has resisted introducing plea bargaining into Japan’s legal system. From 2001 to 2004, the Japanese legislature passed over twenty reform laws to prepare the country’s criminal justice system for the demands of the twenty-first century, but provisions for plea bargaining were conspicuously absent from the reform package.