Japan women prisoners suffer serious abuse: HRW

TOKYO: Handcuffs during pregnancy, separation from newborn babies, and insufficient care for elderly inmates are among the abuses suffered by women incarcerated in Japan, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Female inmates are sometimes shackled during labour and immediately after birth, the international NGO alleged in a new report, based on interviews with nearly 60 formerly jailed women.

Japan´s ministry of justice denied some of the claims, saying that restraints are “not used when imprisoned women are breastfeeding, holding, bathing, or changing the baby´s diapers,” according to the report.

It also said that “appropriate medical measures are taken for prisoners.” The justice ministry´s correction bureau told AFP they would “refrain from commenting” on the report. According to HRW, new mothers also often have their babies taken away from them soon after birth.

“Many women imprisoned in Japan suffer serious human rights abuse and mistreatment,” the rights group said. Nearly 4,000 women were behind bars in Japan as of 2021, mostly over theft and drug-related offences.

According to justice ministry data, only three out of 184 women who gave birth while incarcerated were granted access to their babies in prison between 2011 and 2017. “Separation at birth can be traumatising and harm the health of both the mother and infant and can interfere with breastfeeding and parent-child bonding,” the NGO said.