I know, I have visited one. And I said that on purpose.
Japanese prisons are nothing like US ones. Almost every prisoner is in solitary. Everything is tightly controlled, and infractions are generally resolved through corporal punishment.
Prisoners generally spend 22 hours or so in their cells. For 1 hour a day they have their "exercise period". Where they are taken out by themselves to an enclosed courtyard where they are to exercise. And they are expected to exercise for the entire hour. Stop for more than 10 minutes, and the guards just assume you are done and back to your cell you go. They will not speak anything other than Japanese, and not following commands results in a baton stroke to the back of the legs. Does not matter if you understand the command or not.
In 1988 I had to make weekly "comfort runs" to an American in a Japanese jail, awaiting trial for a drug offense. Once a week I drove an Officer to the prison, along with his mail, Stars & Stripes newspapers, and 2 cases of MREs. He was frequently bruised when I saw him, and was completely and utterly miserable. About the only thing he was given to eat was rice with fish heads or other fish parts, and either water or fruit juice. He spent almost 3 months in that hellhole awaiting his trial.
And I had to drive him after the trial. Now remember, his arrest was because he came up positive for marijuana on a drug test after leave. But as part of the SOFA, the US has to share all such results with Japanese authorities. And once or twice a year they will pick one at random to use as an example. 2 weeks after he popped hot (he already had his UCMJ, reduced from E-3 to E-2 and confined to base for 2 weeks), the JPs arrived at the main gate. Warrant in hand, they took him immediately into custody.
He was convicted in a 45 minute trial (in Japan, a positive urinalysis result is considered the same as simple possession). Sentenced to 5 years in jail, his sentence was suspended and he was returned to US custody, on the condition that he catch the first flight out of Japan and never return to the country. I already had his sea bag in the car, and drove him to Kadena AFB where the first flight leaving was to South Korea. I have no idea what happened after that, but he probably got stuck there for a while since most flights from Korea have a stop in Japan, and he could not even be on a plane that lands in Japan.
Yea, I actually said that Japan should deal with him with purposeful malice. If he thinks he was badly treated by the US, I would love to see what he thought of the treatment Japan would give him.
