The Study on the crime and delinquency committed by foreign juveniles in Japan

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12837007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 少年非行
• Research Institution: Kinjo Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: AYUKAWA Jun Kinjo Gakuin University, Faculty of Contemporary Culture, Professor, 現代文化学部, 教授 (90148784)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2001
• Keywords: probation / Brazilian / foreigner / lay probation officer / juvenile crime / juvenile delinquency / Japanese Brazilian

Research Abstract

Approximately 350 thousand "Japanese Brazilian", who are descendants of Japanese who emigrated to Brazil, are now living in Japan. The cases of Japanese Brazilian juveniles who committed crime and who are under the probation in Aichi prefecture and Shizuoka prefecture were researched in this study. This research was done with help of Nagoya Probation Office and Shizuoka Probation Office, Ministry of Justice. The grantee and two female graduate students interviewed 33 lay probation officers who are doing or who finished probation to Japanese Brazilian boys.
Under probation, the interpreter were often introduced informally by Brazilian juveniles. Most of them are their family members or relatives. Approximately 10 % of the lay probation officer speak Portuguese.
To find where the Brazilian boys work is not easy for the lay probation officers. It is not easy to explain Japanese probation procedure to them. Brazilian boys seldom think that they should be under probation. They look crimes committed in Japan looked too trivial, compared with crimes committed in Brazil, where bribery to law enforcement officers is also common.
Though the ties among Brazilian family members under probation look stronger than the Japanese counterpart, the relationship among Brazilian family members tends to be complicated, because some of parents divorce after they came to Japan.