Tokyo court rules that surveillance camera in death row prisoner’s cell violated right to privacy

TOKYO – On October 25, the district court ordered the Japanese government to pay 550,000 yen (about $3,600) in compensation to a death row inmate on the grounds that keeping him in a cell with a surveillance camera for an extended period violated your right. to privacy.

The Tokyo Detention Center inmate had filed a lawsuit against the state seeking about 19 million yen (approximately $125,000) in damages, alleging that his right to privacy had been violated.

According to the Tokyo District Court ruling, the death row convict was imprisoned in the detention center in October 2007 after being sentenced to death in his first trial. They housed him in a room of approximately three and a half tatami mats, equipped with a surveillance camera, on the grounds that he was at risk of taking his own life. His death sentence ended in 2013 and he remained in a camera-equipped cell until March 2022.

The latest ruling noted that living in a room with a camera subjects the person to a psychological burden since everything is monitored, and that the inmate’s privacy was extremely limited because his private parts could be seen when he defecated. The court found that the inmate’s risk of suddenly committing suicide gradually faded as he became emotionally stable after a certain period after completing his sentence, and recognized that holding him in the camera-equipped room from 2018 was unlawful.

The Correctional Office of the Ministry of Justice commented: “We would like to examine the details of the ruling and respond appropriately.” The lawyer representing the inmate said of the court’s decision: “It is important because it took seriously the psychological burden inflicted by the installed camera.”

(Japanese original by Ran Kanno, Tokyo City News Department)