We gained unprecedented access to film in two Japanese prisons and find out if the allegations that their penitentiary system is inhumane are true.

What we witnessed was astonishing. Inmates must march to their workstations tied to a rope; they are not allowed to look guards in the eye; outside of the scheduled leisure time, they must remain absolutely silent unless they have previously obtained permission to speak.

The mistreatment of accused individuals in custody often pushes them to confess to crimes they did not commit. This is illustrated by the case of a man who spent 46 years on death row before finally being exonerated, but was left broken for life.

We attempt to explain why a country governed by strict principles of order and balance has such a repressive penitentiary system, to see if this can explain why Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

This film was first released in 2020.



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