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Japanese prison mascot appears in children’s colouring book made by prison inmates

Can an anthropomorphised prison wall really capture the heart of a child? 

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Tokyo prison restaurant The Lockup closes its doors for good

Throwing away the key after 23 years of terrifying tourists. 

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Dine out and isolate at the same time at Tokyo’s Prison Restaurant: The Lockup

The Lockup is ringing in the holidays with a very special skull-themed hotpot!

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Kumamoto man released on parole after serving longest prison sentence on record in Japan

And what better time in history to get out there and take a big ol’ drink of life.

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Money-less Japanese diner offered chance to pay later, phones police himself

When store manager refuses to call the cops, man who can’t pay for his meal does it for him.

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Take one last look at the classic architecture of Nara Juvenile Prison【Photos】

This stunning work of century-old architecture has given its last tour allowing people access to never-before-seen parts of the facility.

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“Don’t let it haunt you,” former correctional officer tells about how Japan performs executions

A former correctional officer recounts one experience of an execution in detail, because he can never forget.

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Stay at the Nara Juvenile Prison hotel in Japan in 2020

First look at the guest rooms and dining areas set to appear at the historic Meiji-era complex.

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We spend Culture Day in prison, food was arguably better than Yoshinoya

This Culture Day, our reporter Yuichiro Wasai went straight to Fuchu Prison. He did not pass Go. He did not collect 200 dollars.

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Gorgeous Japanese prison built at turn of the century to become hotel

When staying at this century-old correctional facility, you might hope they lock you up and throw away the key.

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Ehime Prefecture’s new women’s prison decorated powder pink “to relieve feelings of oppression”

In Japan, there are currently 3,440 female inmates confined to seven correctional facilities which all together are built to hold 3,342 women. These statistics come from a spokesperson for the newly opened Saijo branch of Matsuyama Prison, which was built to address this overcrowding problem.

The new prison reportedly offers various facilities and services to cater to women’s needs, but most striking by far are the doors, barred windows and furniture all over the penitentiary, which appear to have been painted a soft pink color, as if to remind the inmates that they’re ladies first and convicted criminals second.

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Amazon Japan adds regulations for deliveries to prisons, the internet wonders why

You no longer have to bake a file in a cake to get something to your buddy in prison; it seems Amazon Japan will do the delivering for you. Sharp-eyed netizens noticed a peculiar addition to the Help Page on the popular home shopping site titled “About shipping to prisons” and it has us all wondering what events transpired to warrant the new information.

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Survivor of North Korean gulags makes wrenching drawings of what happens inside

“Pump torture. After sitting, you stand about a hundred times.”

A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity, including systematic extermination, “murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence … and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

The report is based on a year of public hearings with about 80 witnesses as well as confidential interviews with another 240 victims, including people who’d spent time in North Korean prison camps and experts.

Kim Kwang-il, a 48-year-old man who spent two years in a prison in North Korea, defected to South Korea in February 2009 and subsequently had professional artists draw sketches based on his recollections of torture and the conditions of prisoner life. Some of these were included in the report.

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Prison Culture Festival: All the fun of incarceration, none of the crime!

The first weekend in November, Japan’s largest prison facility, Fuchu Prison, will be holding its annual culture festival! Everyone’s invited to visit the grounds and experience all the fun, food, and friendly atmosphere – things that are not often attributed to prison life. It’s just like the cultural festivals run by high school students, but imagine that the students are all convicts dressed in grey pajamas and locked up in their classrooms. Flyers for the event list educational exhibitions, musical guests, and even a “prison adventure” bus tour behind the heavily guarded walls!

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