This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCWorldService.com

slash podcasts. Hello and welcome to Simon on the BBC World Service with me,

Marika Ooi in Japan. We've just driven two hours from Tokyo where high-rise buildings make

way for traditional roved houses and small plots of farmland. It's an unassuming place,

but this is where a man with an incredible story lives. Shorji Sakurai was forced to confess to a

crime that he didn't commit and he spent 29 years in jail for it. Once the Japanese police suspect

you, they treat you as if you're guilty. My name is Shorji Sakurai and I've been fighting to

clear my name for the past 44 years. I was unemployed back then when I was arrested and asked

whether I had an alibi. My mother was standing next to me and I didn't want her to know that I was

out of work so I lied. The police found out and concluded that if I was hiding something I must

be guilty. They interrogated me day and night telling me to confess. They grilled me physically and

mentally. After five days I had no mental strengths left. I gave up and confessed.

Japan boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the world. The murder rate is just a tenth of the

United States but for those unlucky enough to be arrested for serious crime here the verdict is

pretty much certain. They're highly likely to confess and be found guilty. But some of them have

been found to be innocent. I'll be investigating forced confessions in Japan and asking if things are

about to change. Sakurai welcomes us into his home and we take off our shoes and go into the living

room. Sakurai a very useful looking broad-cholded man in his 60s and his wife Keko give us a special

tea. He then tells me more about how police questioned him for robbery and murder of a man in the

Fukawa area in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo in 1967. After they brought me in for questioning

they stripped me naked to make sure I had no weapons on me. So immediately there's a big power

imbalance in that small interrogation room. They control you and continually denounce you.

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