Private Regulation: An Essay in Honour of Fujimoto Tetsuya

Abstract

It is a privelage to have been invited and a pleasure to contribute an article to celebrate the 70th birthday of Professor Fujimoto Tetsuya. As the first Japanese scholar to receive a PhD in Criminology, Professor Fujimoto has blazed a trail that has been followed by successive generations of students. The impressive state of contemporary Japanese criminology owes a great deal to his pioneering work. Professor Fujimoto's contributions have ranged widely, from criminal poliscy, to the treatment of sex offenders, to the care of prisoners following their discharge from prison. Certain themes that appear in his work are indicative of emerging developments in Japanese criminal justice as in public policy more generally. The basic idea of this article is the contribution of non-governmental actors to public policy. Its primary focus is on business regulation in Western political systems. In Japan, Professor Fujimoto (2009) has noted the potential for citizen involvement in restorative justice. He has also noted how countermeasures against Boryokudan have involved enlisting the citizenry to resist unjust demands from gangster grops and to file civil lawsuits in order to create an inhospitable climate for gangster activity (Fujimoto 1998). Of course, recent years have seen the introduction in Japan of the Lay Assessor System (Saiban-In Seido) (Anderson and Nolan 2004). Show more