A comparative study of racial justice in English and Japanese prisons

The world‐wide advancement in transportation and telecommunications has brought about tremendous human exchange across international boundaries. As a result of a huge influx of people of different ethnic origins, confrontations between ethnic majorities and minorities are taking place in many countries around the world. Because a prison is a society in miniature, it is not free from the ills from which the society as a whole suffers. That is why prison administrators are tackling the problem of racial justice. As the character of society varies from country to country, so the methods of prison administration vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Therefore, studies of racial justice in one national prison system may not automatically be applicable to another system. However, it is also true that an understanding of the nature of racial justice in the prisons of different countries may provide us with a fresh theoretical perspective on this subject and provide clues as to how to solve the problems of our own country. It is because we believe that the comparative approach is of great value that we discuss this subject area in this essay.