Japan's Prisons Grapple with Aging, Foreign Inmates

Seated in a wheelchair, an elderly woman bends silently as her wrinkled fingers move with surprising speed to fold pieces of coloured origami paper into intricate shapes.

Beside her, another woman does the same, both adding their finished pieces to a pile on the table without looking up or exchanging a word.

Inside Tochigi Prison, where talking during work is forbidden, elderly women folding paper and sewing in silence reflect a broader test of Japan’s penal system: how to care for ageing, unwell and foreign prisoners while shifting its focus from punishment to rehabilitation.

The inmates typically work from 7.40am until 4.30pm five days a week, with a 30-minute lunch break and a brief interlude mid-morning and again in the afternoon. They are paid for their work and can use the amount they receive to purchase items in the prison or receive the total they are owed upon release.

One-third of them are from overseas, with Thai women accounting for 17 per cent of the foreign contingent and Chinese nationals around 10 per cent. Women from 33 countries are held at the prison, most of whom are serving sentences for attempting to smuggle narcotics into Japan.