A Japanese Man Was Imprisoned by Mistake and Will Now Get $85 for Every Day Spent in Jail. It’s Going to Make Him a Millionaire

None of Japan’s many paradoxes is quite like the story of former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata. In 1968, at the age of 30, his life changed forever. A court found him guilty of four murders and one act of arson, resulting in a death penalty. Hakamata became the longest-serving prisoner on death row. However, after spending 47 years behind bars, he’s now free.

It was all a mistake, and Japan wants to compensate him.

A symbolic compensation. Hakamata has received $1.44 million after spending almost five decades on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. This amount equals about $85 for each day he was deprived of liberty since his conviction in 1968.

While this figure represents the largest amount awarded for wrongful incarceration, his defense team has described it as not enough to repair the irreversible damage caused. Lawyer Hideyo Ogawa argues that Japan’s justice system made an unforgivable mistake and that no amount of money can restore the life that was taken from him.

Context. In 1966, police found the bodies of a man, his wife, and their two teenage children in a house in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo. They had been stabbed to death. The man was in charge of a miso plant, and investigations pointed to one of his employees: Hakamata.

The arrest. Two months after the murders and the fire, Hakamata was arrested. Officials subjected him to extensive interrogations that included beatings and threats, leading to a confession he later claimed was coerced. Two years later, the Shizuoka District Court found him guilty of the crimes and sentenced him to death by hanging. Two key pieces of evidence in his case were his confession and several bloody items of clothing that allegedly belonged to him.

Officers had been slow to introduce this evidence because it wasn’t found until a year after Hakamata’s arrest, hidden in a miso tank. Deeply affected by the ruling, one dissenting judge resigned six months later, unable to live with the decision. Throughout this ordeal, Hakamata consistently maintained his innocence.

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Genetic testing. The case took a big turn in 2014 when new DNA evidence emerged. They revealed that the bloody garments used as key evidence in the trial had been tampered with and possibly placed at the scene after the crime occurred.

These findings led to his release that same year, though his final acquittal didn’t come until March 2023. It was only in 2024 when the Shizuoka court finally declared him not guilty. The ruling was celebrated as a judicial milestone. However, Hakamata couldn’t witness it due to severe mental health issues resulting from decades of confinement. His sister Hideko explained that he now lives “in his own world,” disconnected from reality.

Criticism of the Japanese system. The case of the former boxer has highlighted the structural issues of Japan’s criminal justice system. In the country, conviction rates exceed 99%, largely because of reliance on confessions obtained under pressure. Hakamata’s story has also reignited the debate over the validity of the death penalty and the urgent need for sweeping reforms in Japan’s criminal processes.

The case of Hakamata has become an international symbol of the devastating potential of miscarriages of justice. This is mainly due to the lengthy wait for a judicial review and the initial refusal to accept exculpatory evidence. The absence of effective mechanisms to prevent abuses has also contributed.

Although the compensation Hakamata received serves as official recognition of the injustice he endured, the decades of isolation and mental deterioration are impossible to reverse.

Image | Matthew Ansley

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