Revised Penal Code shifts focus to rehabilitation

A certified care worker, center, helps elderly inmates work to improve physical functions using educational materials and tablet devices on May 20 at Fuchu Prison in Fuchu, Tokyo. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

The amended Penal Code bill that was passed this month mandates the creation of a "confinement" category, abolishing the categories of imprisonment with labor and imprisonment without labor, aiming to facilitate the official shift of emphasis from "punishment" to "rehabilitation" for inmates.

Under the current Penal Code, convicts sentenced to imprisonment with labor are assigned work duties without exception.