David T. Johnson – författare

Criminal proceedings in which people can lose life, liberty, or reputation tell us a great deal about the character of any society. In Japan, it is prosecutors who wield the greatest control over these values and who therefore reveal most clearly the character of the Japanese way of justice. In this book, David T. Johnson portrays Japanese prosecutors at work; the social, political, and legal contexts that enable and constrain their actions; and the content of the justice thereby delivered. Johnson is the first researcher, Japanese or foreign, to gain access to the frontline prosecutors who charge cases and the backstage prosecutors who manage and direct them. He shows that prosecutors in Japan frequently harmonize to imperlatives of justice that Americans often regard as irreconcilable: the need to individualize cases alike. However, their capacity to correct offenders and to obtain contrite, complete confessions from criminal suspects. Johnson argues that this extreme reliance on confessions occasionally leads to extreme efforts to extract them. Indeed, much of the most disturbing prosecutor behavior springs directly or indirectly from the system''s inordinate dependence on admissions of guilt. The major achievements of Japanese criminal justice are thus inextricably intertwined with its most notable defects, and efforts to fix the defects threaten to undermine the accomplishments. Clearly written and skillfully argued, this comparative analysis will be of interest to students of Japan, criminology, and law and society. It illuminates unexplored realms in Japan''s criminal justice system while challenging readers to examine their assumptions about how crime should be prosecuted in their own systems of criminal justice.

In the Japanese criminal justice system, the prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other figure. Prosecutors make critical decisions about "who gets what" in Japan, chiefly by monopolizing decisions as to who will be charged with crimes, and for what. Based on extensive fieldwork inside a large prosecutors office in Japan and on numerous surveys and interviews, Johnson presents the first in-depth study in any language to describe and explain the role of Japan's 2000 prosecutors, the contexts in which they work, and the formidable powers they individually and collectively exercise.

Today, two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world's most rapidly developing region? David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.

Criminal proceedings in which people can lose life, liberty, or reputation tell us a great deal about the character of any society. In Japan, it is prosecutors who wield the greatest control over these values and who therefore reveal most clearly the character of the Japanese way of justice. In this book, David T. Johnson portrays Japanese prosecutors at work; the social, political, and legal contexts that enable and constrain their actions; and the content of the justice thereby delivered. Johnson is the first researcher, Japanese or foreign, to gain access to the frontline prosecutors who charge cases and the backstage prosecutors who manage and direct them. He shows that prosecutors in Japan frequently harmonize to imperlatives of justice that Americans often regard as irreconcilable: the need to individualize cases alike. However, their capacity to correct offenders and to obtain contrite, complete confessions from criminal suspects. Johnson argues that this extreme reliance on confessions occasionally leads to extreme efforts to extract them. Indeed, much of the most disturbing prosecutor behavior springs directly or indirectly from the system''s inordinate dependence on admissions of guilt. The major achievements of Japanese criminal justice are thus inextricably intertwined with its most notable defects, and efforts to fix the defects threaten to undermine the accomplishments. Clearly written and skillfully argued, this comparative analysis will be of interest to students of Japan, criminology, and law and society. It illuminates unexplored realms in Japan''s criminal justice system while challenging readers to examine their assumptions about how crime should be prosecuted in their own systems of criminal justice.

Today, two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world's most rapidly developing region? David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.

Today, two-thirds of the world''s nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world''s most rapidly developing region? David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.

Today, two-thirds of the world''s nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world''s most rapidly developing region? David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.

Richard Linklater's filmmaking choices seem to defy basic patterns of authorship. From his debut with the inventive independent narrative Slacker, the Austin-based director's divergent films have included the sci-fi noir A Scanner Darkly, the socially conscious Fast Food Nation, the kid-friendly The School of Rock, the teen ensemble Dazed and Confused, and the twin romances Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Yet throughout his varied career spanning two decades, Linklater has maintained a sense of integrity while working within a broad range of budgets, genres, and subject matters. Identifying a critical commonality among so much variation, David T. Johnson analyzes Linklater's preoccupation with the concept of time in many of his films, focusing on its many forms and aspects: the subjective experience of time and the often explicit, self-aware ways that characters discuss that experience; time and memory, and the ways that characters negotiate memory in the present; the moments of adolescence and early adulthood as crucial moments in time; the relationship between time and narrative in film; and how cinema, itself, may be becoming antiquated. While Linklater's focus on temporality often involves a celebration of the present that is not divorced from the past and future, Johnson argues that this attendance to the present also includes an ongoing critique of modern American culture. Crucially filling a gap in critical studies of this American director, the volume concludes with an interview with Linklater discussing his career.

Richard Linklater''s filmmaking choices seem to defy basic patterns of authorship. From his debut with the inventive independent narrative Slacker, the Austin-based director''s divergent films have included the sci-fi noir A Scanner Darkly, the socially conscious Fast Food Nation, the kid-friendly The School of Rock, the teen ensemble Dazed and Confused, and the twin romances Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Yet throughout his varied career spanning two decades, Linklater has maintained a sense of integrity while working within a broad range of budgets, genres, and subject matters.   Identifying a critical commonality among so much variation, David T. Johnson analyzes Linklater''s preoccupation with the concept of time in many of his films, focusing on its many forms and aspects: the subjective experience of time and the often explicit, self-aware ways that characters discuss that experience; time and memory, and the ways that characters negotiate memory in the present; the moments of adolescence and early adulthood as crucial moments in time; the relationship between time and narrative in film; and how cinema, itself, may be becoming antiquated. While Linklater''s focus on temporality often involves a celebration of the present that is not divorced from the past and future, Johnson argues that this attendance to the present also includes an ongoing critique of modern American culture. Crucially filling a gap in critical studies of this American director, the volume concludes with an interview with Linklater discussing his career.

What role does love—of cinema, of cinema studies, of teaching and learning—play in teaching film? For the Love of Cinema brings together a wide range of film scholars to explore the relationship between cinephilia and pedagogy. All of them ask whether cine-love can inform the serious study of cinema. Chapter by chapter, writers approach this question from various perspectives: some draw on aspects of students' love of cinema as a starting point for rethinking familiar films or generating new kinds of analyses about the medium itself; others reflect on how their own cinephilia informs the way they teach cinema; and still others offer new ways of writing (both verbally and audiovisually) with a love of cinema in the age of new media. Together, they form a collection that is as much a guide for teaching cinephilia as it is an energetic dialogue about the ways that cinephilia and pedagogy enliven and rejuvenate one another.

What role does love—of cinema, of cinema studies, of teaching and learning—play in teaching film? For the Love of Cinema brings together a wide range of film scholars to explore the relationship between cinephilia and pedagogy. All of them ask whether cine-love can inform the serious study of cinema. Chapter by chapter, writers approach this question from various perspectives: some draw on aspects of students' love of cinema as a starting point for rethinking familiar films or generating new kinds of analyses about the medium itself; others reflect on how their own cinephilia informs the way they teach cinema; and still others offer new ways of writing (both verbally and audiovisually) with a love of cinema in the age of new media. Together, they form a collection that is as much a guide for teaching cinephilia as it is an energetic dialogue about the ways that cinephilia and pedagogy enliven and rejuvenate one another.

Founded in 1973, the journal Literature/Film Quarterly has featured interviews with some of the most prominent and influential filmmakers from around the world. In Conversations with Directors: An Anthology of Interviews from Literature/Film Quarterly, the journal's coeditors have assembled an exciting collection of interviews spanning 35 years of the internationally-renowned publication and representing a broad spectrum of artistic approaches, industrial contexts, and cultural concerns. Interviewees include classic Hollywood directors like Robert Wise, Billy Wilder, and Frank Capra; European auteurs such as Eric Rohmer, Federico Fellini, and Louis Malle; New Hollywood directors such as William Friedkin, John Schlesinger, and Robert Altman; women directors such as Martha Coolidge and Patricia Rozema; contemporary filmmakers like Richard Linklater and Baz Luhrmann; and documentary and avant-garde filmmakers.Organized chronologically, each interview is preceded by a short introduction that establishes a contemporary context, along with providing the reader with a clear sense of the interview's primary concerns, usefully illuminating the many fascinating, and sometimes surprising, points of connection and difference between the directors. The editors of this collection explore these connections for the reader, with a particular emphasis on such recurring subjects as auteurism, realism, editing, cinematography, soundtracks, budgets, documentary versus narrative film, mainstream versus avant-garde cinema, processes of adaptation, collaborations with actors, and issues of artistic control. By assembling this collection, the editors have provided a single volume where readers may access the best interviews from the journal's pages over the last several decades. Ultimately, Conversations with Directors will prove to be an invaluable resource to both scholars and film fans who are eager to gain further insight into these directors and their work.

This open access book provides a comparative perspective on capital punishment in Japan and the United States. Alongside the US, Japan is one of only a few developed democracies in the world which retains capital punishment and continues to carry out executions on a regular basis. There are some similarities between the two systems of capital punishment but there are also many striking differences. These include differences in capital jurisprudence, execution method, the nature and extent of secrecy surrounding death penalty deliberations and executions, institutional capacities to prevent and discover wrongful convictions, orientations to lay participation and to victim participation, and orientations to “democracy” and governance. Johnson also explores several fundamental issues about the ultimate criminal penalty, such as the proper role of citizen preferences in governing a system of punishment and the relevance of the feelings of victims and survivors.

This book explains Japan’s unique Prosecution Review Commission (PRC) which is composed of eleven lay people selected randomly from voter registration lists. Each of the country’s 165 PRCs reviews non-charge decisions made by professional prosecutors and determines which cases should be reinvestigated or charged. PRCs also provide prosecutors with general proposals and recommendations for improving their policies and practices. The book analyzes the history and operations of the PRC and uses statistics and case studies to examine its various impacts, from legitimation and shadow effects to kickbacks and mandatory prosecution.More broadly, this book explores a problem that is common in many criminal justice systems: how to hold prosecutors accountable for their non-charge decisions. It discusses the potential these panels have for improving the quality of criminal justice in Japan and other countries, and it will appeal to scholars and students studying prosecution and democracy, criminal justice, criminology, lay participation, justice reform, and Japanese studies.

This book explains Japan’s unique Prosecution Review Commission (PRC) which is composed of eleven lay people selected randomly from voter registration lists. Each of the country’s 165 PRCs reviews non-charge decisions made by professional prosecutors and determines which cases should be reinvestigated or charged. PRCs also provide prosecutors with general proposals and recommendations for improving their policies and practices. The book analyzes the history and operations of the PRC and uses statistics and case studies to examine its various impacts, from legitimation and shadow effects to kickbacks and mandatory prosecution.More broadly, this book explores a problem that is common in many criminal justice systems: how to hold prosecutors accountable for their non-charge decisions. It discusses the potential these panels have for improving the quality of criminal justice in Japan and other countries, and it will appeal to scholars and students studying prosecution and democracy, criminal justice, criminology, lay participation, justice reform, and Japanese studies.

This book explains Japan’s unique Prosecution Review Commission (PRC) which is composed of eleven lay people selected randomly from voter registration lists. Each of the country’s 165 PRCs reviews non-charge decisions made by professional prosecutors and determines which cases should be reinvestigated or charged. PRCs also provide prosecutors with general proposals and recommendations for improving their policies and practices. The book analyzes the history and operations of the PRC and uses statistics and case studies to examine its various impacts, from legitimation and shadow effects to kickbacks and mandatory prosecution.More broadly, this book explores a problem that is common in many criminal justice systems: how to hold prosecutors accountable for their non-charge decisions. It discusses the potential these panels have for improving the quality of criminal justice in Japan and other countries, and it will appeal to scholars and students studying prosecution and democracy, criminal justice, criminology, lay participation, justice reform, and Japanese studies.

Poverty, inequality and social welfare are defined in this book. Previous poverty studies are surveyed and a new index of poverty is developed based on everyday meanings, and stressing the individual and relative nature of poverty. Previous definitions of inequality and welfare are described and the relations between them and poverty are explored. New estimates of poverty are made for Australia. Conclusions are derived from comparisons between measured levels of poverty over time and across family types. Previous Australian studies of inequality and welfare are surveyed and new estimates are made for Australia for recent years.