Crime Control in Japan: Exceptional, Convergent or What Else?

Abstract

Abstract Theories about crime control in Japan have largely been based around two opposing traditions. On the one hand, cultural explanations have emphasized the exceptional attributes of Japanese social relations that contribute towards shaming and re-integrative processes. On the other hand, more recent explanations assert that Japanese crime control is converging with other countries, particularly towards penal populism. Both approaches tend to reduce explanations to a monolithic characterization that disguises variegation within Japan. Through considering the governance of illegal drug use and the Kamagasaki area of Osaka, a ‘geo-historical’ perspective is advocated to better capture the complexity and contradictions of globalizing processes and social culture and their resulting manifestations in crime control within contemporary Japan.