An Empirical Analysis Of Decriminalization On Criminal Policy In Japan

Since the criminal law was born, decriminalization is accompanied all the time,but the real reflect for the modesty character of criminal law in the criminal policyis originated from the western countries of the last century. In this trend of thought,the western countries,especially European and American countries generally pursuedecriminalization of the criminal law, and achieved a certain results in carrying outthe decriminalization in the practice of criminal law. Since this century, influenced byforeign countries, the voice of decriminalization in china is also rising. The authorthinks that the law, as a kind of many control measures in social relations, any legalsystem should not deviated from the social soil. In view of this, the author is intendedto analyze the processing characteristics of decriminalization by taking the typicalnation of Japan for example, as a reference for extraterritorial crimial research for ourcountry. This paper is divided into four parts:The first part of this paper defines the concept of decriminalization, also clarifiesthe objects and approaches of it. The concept of decriminalization dispute has not yetbeen decided, but this article as a study of decriminalization practice should bediscussed in a certain range. Therefore, this paper, based on the criminal lawoperation process and combined the Japanese general theory, the decriminalizationcan be divided into two aspects: legislative level and judicial level, and clearlyclarifies the two objects: victimless crime and slight crime. As a basis, this paper isto further explore the characteristics of Japanese decriminalization.The second part of this paper is to explore the forming characteristics ofJapanese decriminalization. According to the development of Japan’s post-warcriminal legal system, this paper periodically summarizes the Japanesedecriminalization. The modern Japanese criminal law is deeply affected by theEuropean and American countries, absorbing the introduction of a number of differentlegal system, and integrating into its own legal system, then forming the Japanese legal system which is not only followed the trend and also conducted by is personalindependence. This part also analyzes the forming reason of relying heavily on thedecriminalization, assembling the practicing process of post-war criminal law.The third part of this paper is to specifically analyze the two main subjects of thedecriminalization, based on the judicial practice data materials of Japanesedecriminalization, and find out the regularity of Japanese judicial decriminalization.Especially the differences of the decriminalization for victimless crime reflects theflexible treatment on the localization of legal system. In addition, the differentconsequences on the disposal of decriminalization for two slight crime: trafficviolation and theft crime embodies the advantages and disadvantages of judicialdecriminalization.The fourth part of this paper is to summariz the characteristics and experience ofthe Japanese Judicial decriminalization in consideration of reference.