Japan's Ministry of Justice plans to experiment next year to allow sex offenders on parole to carry GPS devices to prevent recidivism

(Central News Agency, Tokyo, 13th, comprehensive foreign news reports) Japan’s Ministry of Justice has decided to start an experiment next year, allowing sex offenders on parole to wear GPS devices to study how to use the obtained location information to prevent recidivism. However, how to strike a balance between protecting privacy has also become a major issue.

Japan's "Yomiuri Shimbun" and AMEBA TIMES reported that the subjects of this experiment are limited to parolees who have obtained their consent.

The Ministry of Justice of Japan stated that the equipment that the experimental subjects will be held in the experiment is not a device that is forced to be installed on the body, but is expected to be a device that can be carried with them. Exactly which sex crimes it will apply to are still being discussed.

In the "Second Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plan" approved by the Japanese government at the cabinet meeting in 2023, reference has been made to overseas cases of using global positioning systems (GPS) to obtain location information of sex offenders, and it has been included in sex offender treatment measures.

The Ministry of Justice will conduct experiments based on this policy, and if it believes that GPS can achieve the effect of preventing recidivism, it will further consider its formal introduction.

According to a survey by the Ministry of Justice, 13.9% of those convicted of sex crimes were convicted of another sex crime within five years. On the other hand, among those who reoffended, 67.4% reoffended for sexual crimes.

Parolees must be interviewed by a Protection Observer or Protection Division and declare information such as their living conditions. If the signs of recidivism can be understood by obtaining location information, in addition to reminding parolees to pay attention, it is also expected to assist protection and observation officers and others in providing counseling.

On the other hand, how to strike a balance between preventing recidivism and protecting the privacy of parolees will also become a topic for future discussion.

Lawyer Ohno Teppei, director of the Japan Prison Human Rights Center, said that allowing these people to carry GPS devices may ostensibly prevent re-offending, and may also make it easier to determine that their risk of re-offending has been reduced during parole review.

But he also expressed concern: "If this measure is extended to the end of the sentence in the future, privacy issues will arise. If people are isolated from society in the form of stigmatization, it may hinder their rehabilitation and return to society."

On the other hand, Tsuyoshi Natsuno, director of the Institute of Information Science at Kinki University, said regarding the particularity of sexual crimes: "Unlike crimes such as robbery, sexual crimes and sexual impulses are close to instinct. Most people would not do it if they think normally, but some people will do it, so the threshold for them to cross the line of 'cannot do' is very low."

Therefore, Xia Yegang emphasized, "Unless they continue to be given "not to do" pressure, they are likely to commit crimes again. Therefore, sexual crimes must be thought of separately from other crimes."

Saito Shoka, a doctor who has long treated sex crime offenders, also pointed out: "People who receive sex crime treatment basically have treatment motivations and believe that they "want to change." But there are also people in prison who do not want to change at all, and some even threaten to commit crimes again after they are released from prison. These people have been in and out of prison 10 or 15 times, and they are an ultra-high-risk group."