The accusation itself was my downfall-my guilt or innocence, in a way, didn’t matter. The Board of Education had lost face over the accusation. However, this exoneration didn’t get me my job back. She’d lost her job after her supervisors had reviewed the video footage and realized that I hadn’t left the store (the actual definition of shoplifting). (It’s rare to actually get fired in Japan it’s assumed an employee who has screwed up will resign out of shame.)Ī few weeks later, I received a letter of apology from the security guard at the store who had “caught” me. This was a relief, of course, but I did have to resign from my teaching job. When I did see the prosecutor, I gritted my teeth and signed a confession-a confession in Japanese, which I couldn’t read.
If I fought the charge against me, it was highly likely that I would be found guilty and sentenced. He explained that in Japan, over ninety-eight percent of cases that go to trial end in guilty verdicts. I was advised by a man from the American embassy, who visited me after a few days, to confess to whatever crime I was accused of once I was allowed to see the prosecutor. I had two cellmates our food came through a flap near the floor, and we were allowed out of the cell for a few minutes each day to brush our teeth and wash up at a long sink. I had made a mistake in carrying a few items-a scarf, a water filter, and a DVD-from one department to another in a Kmart-like large store, instead of paying for each item separately in its own department, so while this was against store policy, it wasn’t a crime. I was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting-which, I assure you, is a crime I have committed as a junior student I used to steal troll dolls from a local shop-but in this case, I was actually innocent.
Kelly Luce: To make a very long story as short as I can, I spent a week in a women’s prison in Yokohama during my first year in Japan. Karan Mahajan: Describe your experiences in the Japanese penal system.
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