| When
David Smith, an American, arrived at Fucho prison, the rules were explained to
him in detail. He had been arrested for smuggling
drugs into Japan and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. But
Smith, 32 years old, kept forgetting the rules. For
example, one time he opened his eyes before he was told to at lunch time. For
this his hands were tied behind his back for two days. Following
more incidents and more punishments, Smith is now suing the Japanese government
for $90,000. For a modern and highly-civilised society,
the conditions in Japanese prisons seem to be incongruously brutal. Prisoners
are routinely beaten for petty offences or locked in tiny wooden cages for days
on end. The idea is to not only imprison the body,
but also the mind. At Fuchu Prison, prisoners are
only allowed to talk in the evenings, cigarettes are banned and only six books
and one letter a month are allowed. 1.5% of Japan's
prisoners are foreigners and they are starting to fight back rather than accept
this treatment. One Japanese professor of law said
that until Japanese prisons meet international standards, these problems will
get worse and worse. However, with Japan's prison
population at less than 10% the average of the U.S. and half that of Germany,
it seems that the cruel conditions inside Japanese prisons might be one of the
things that help to make Japan a safe, pleasant country to live in. | 
