[Plaintiff's thoughts]

"Hostage Justice"

The criminal justice system in Japan is sometimes called this. Pretrial and pre-judgment citizens may be detained for long periods of time simply by honestly claiming innocence according to their own memory, or by claiming their own interpretation of the interpretation of disputed law. ..

Due to arrest and detention, the social position and credibility that has been steadily built up until then will soon collapse. Not just the person. The same is true for families, and for leaders who lead an organization, the entire organization is at great risk.

Mr. Masaaki Okawara, the president of Ohkawara Kakohki Co., Ltd., and Mr. Shizuo Aijima, who was an adviser, did not give in to this while being forced to confess by the hostage justice, and made acquittal.

As a result, everyone remained in custody for over 11 months. Mr. Aijima, who was 73 years old, suddenly became ill during his detention and passed away without waiting for the court's decision.

We are now living in a nation where this unfortunately happens.

What would you do if you were arrested X years later on suspicion that you didn't remember?

If you are trapped in a detention center forever, let's plead guilty. That is better for the family and for the company. I think some people think so.

Hostage justice causes innocent citizens to give up on being detained without false confessions and continues to produce hidden false charges. You and your family reading this may also be victims of tomorrow's false charges.

"Hostage justice must never be forgiven."

"The truth must be made public about what happened behind the detention of innocent citizens for 11 months."

With this in mind, President Okawara and his colleagues decided to stick to their beliefs and thoroughly pursue illegal investigations that relied on hostage justice.

Then, on September 8, 2021, a lawsuit for damages was filed against the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the national government, alleging that the arrest by the Public Security Department of the Metropolitan Police Department and the prosecution by the prosecutor were illegal.

(State of the complaint interview)

[Summary of the case]

Ohkawara Kakohiki Co., Ltd. has delivered many spray dryers to domestic and overseas companies as a leading company in spray drying technology.

A spray dryer is a device that sprays a liquid into hot air to obtain powder. This device is used to make instant coffee powder and dry powder in the chemical industry.

(Structural drawing of spray dryer (spray dryer))

On March 11, 2020, President Okawara and his colleagues were suddenly arrested. The reason for his arrest was that he exported the spray dryer to a Chinese subsidiary of a major German chemical manufacturer without the permission of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. There is no dispute over that. It was part of normal corporate activities, just like the myriad of other overseas transactions. However, this export was allegedly an illegal export that violated foreign exchange laws and regulations, and the three were charged as they were.

The Foreign Exchange Law is a law that regulates foreign transactions such as the transfer of funds and goods and services between Japan and foreign countries. Government permits and approvals are required when exporting goods to special countries or regions, or when exporting goods that can be converted into weapons.

One day, the spray dryer of Ohkawara Kakohiki Co., Ltd. was suddenly judged by an investigative agency to be capable of military diversion, and it was decided that it should not be exported to China without permission.

After his arrest, President Okawara and his colleagues continued to insist that spray dryers should not be subject to regulation, with the opinion of experts. After being detained for nearly a year, the prosecutor finally canceled the indictment, saying that "it became clear that the product did not meet regulatory requirements." In response to this, the Tokyo District Court decided to dismiss the complaint on August 2. The case ended abruptly.

The Metropolitan Police Department was conducting the investigation with a "case-based" attitude, even though it should have known from the evidence that it did not meet the regulatory requirements. Even with such a sloppy outlook, I thought that I could be convicted if I detained him and confessed, so I continued to investigate. Prosecutors likewise overlooked this and forced prosecution, even though they should have known that it did not meet regulatory requirements. The lawyers have requested bail five times since they were indicted, but the court rejected all of them. Mr. Aijima became ill during detention and continued treatment at home after the detention was suspended, but he died unfortunately on February 7, 3rd year of Reiwa. Bail was not granted, as he was said to be at risk of destroying his guilt even during treatment.

The prosecutor continued to oppose the request for bail, saying, "If you release yourself, the three people may talk to each other or work with the employees to make a convenient statement."

However, President Okawara and other officers and employees of Ohkawara Kakohki have been fully cooperating with police interrogations for a year and a half prior to the arrest of the three. Forty-eight officers and employees, including three, responded to a total of 264 interrogations before their arrest.

In addition, the Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Department and the public prosecutor conducted an investigation on objective requirements for about three years, seized all the items and data owned by Ohkawara Kakohki and its related parties, and further to the related parties of Ohkawara Kakohki. After about a year and a half of interrogation, we gathered enough evidence on the subjective side and moved to prosecution with full satisfaction. There was little factual dispute between the prosecutor and the defense counsel, and the only issue was legal interpretation. It only has to be contested in court.

What kind of "criminal evidence" is to be destroyed in such a state? The purpose of the prosecutor's opposition to bail and the court's continued refusal to bail is to make President Okawara confess. It is typical of "hostage justice".

(Okawara Kakohki Co., Ltd.)

[Use of funds]

Fixed legal costs

・ Revenue stamp fee: 1,718,000 yen

・ Prepaid postage stamp (postage stamp expected to be necessary for proceedings): 14,000 yen

Expenses required to continue the trial

・ Meeting expenses, transportation expenses, etc.

·attorney's fee

・ Expert opinion fee

・ Proposal costs to appeal the actual situation of hostage justice, etc.

[A word from the plaintiffs]

Arrest after one year and five months of voluntary interrogation following forced search and seizure, then 11 months of detention, and 6 months of bail prohibiting contact with the company and employees, for a total of 34 months, I and my employees And his family have been painful and painful. In the meantime, even if we received many sad things from financial institutions and business partners, we believed in innocence and insisted on innocence, and we all proceeded together with the experts and lawyers who understood it.

This time, everyone's efforts and cooperation were fruitful, but the arrogance of exercising power, most people including the government, researchers, customers, and peers who were interviewed wrote the record according to the police and prosecution. Seeing the fact of signing, I saw the horror of public security justice in addition to hostage justice. Once again, I would like to thank the employees and the people who supported me in accordance with my conscience without fear of this power, and steadily proceeded with my work, and I just hope that such an event will not occur.

Masaaki Okawara

I have sincerely complied with this law based on our philosophy of "contributing to a peaceful and healthy society." Each customer also pledged not to divert the equipment to weapons. Because of that pride, no matter how long he was detained and forced to confess, he could not bend his beliefs and plead guilty.

Through this trial, we urge that long-term detentions due to such illegal investigations will never occur again.

Junshi Shimada

My father developed stomach cancer and died after a long period of detention for a crime he did not commit. I believe that the onset of stomach cancer had nothing to do with this detention, but it took about two months from the onset of gastrointestinal bleeding and anemia associated with stomach cancer until the start of treatment.

Even though the anemia was life-threatening and I could not walk alone, I was not released on bail and could not go to the hospital. During this time, I was not able to take proper nutrition, which deprived me of my strength.

On October 16, he received an eight-hour stay of execution of his detention and went to a hospital in Tokyo, but due to his position as a defendant under suspension of execution of detention and limited time, he was not able to receive any medical examination or treatment, and returned to the detention center without any improvement in his condition.

We were terrified that my father would die in jail. The prosecutor's office refused to approve any treatment for his illness even though he was in this condition.

My family and I desperately searched for a hospital where he could be treated. As a result, he was admitted to the hospital on November 6, and we were able to start treatment, but it had already spread to his liver and he was in a terminal condition. I regretted the delay in seeing the doctor, saying, "If only it had been a little earlier...".

At the hospital, the doctors and nurses were very kind and devoted in providing me with medical care. I felt the warmth of the people in the hospital. After that, his condition improved for a while, but he gradually weakened and finally succumbed to the disease. My father passed away without ever confirming his innocence.

My father was a man of science, specializing in applied chemistry. He worked hard and took pride in developing and manufacturing products that were useful to the world. It is regrettable that my father met his end without having his dignity protected.

　On behalf of the bereaved family of Shizuo Aishima

[A word from the defense team]

Unlike general criminal cases, which require a prompt investigation when a crime or damage occurs or is discovered, in this case, the investigative agency asks whether the export of spray dryers made by Ohkawara Kakohiki in the past violates the regulatory requirements of laws and regulations. I could afford to thoroughly investigate whether or not. In fact, the Public Security Department of the Metropolitan Police Department has conducted a huge amount of hearings from customers of Okawa Kakoki, other companies in the same industry, experts, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which has jurisdiction over laws and regulations, since May 2017, when the investigation was started. The experiment used was repeated. In October 2018, a search and seizure was conducted at the head office of Ohkawara Kakohki, and after that, a total of 264 interrogations were conducted with officers and employees.

Despite spending enough time investigating, false charges arose.

Why did the false charge occur?

Regarding this case, the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Department and the prosecutor who filed the indictment said, "If you are arrested and detained, you can easily confess and be convicted, even if it is a little unreasonable. The cause is that he was dominated by the dangerous idea of "Let's do it." Japan's hostage justice was at the root of a sloppy investigation.

The prosecutor who directed the investigation would not have dreamed that they would continue to deny after their arrest. He must have been violated by the dangerous rule of thumb, "If you continue to deny, you won't get bail. If you don't get bail, your company will collapse. Therefore, you'll plead guilty to protect your company."

We hope that the truth of the false charges revealed in this proceeding will be an opportunity to correct the hostage justice.

Takeshi Takada, Lawyer, Wadakuramon Law Office, on behalf of the defense team

Thank you for your support.