2. Disposition in courts
(1) Overview
The number of foreign nationals (refers to foreign defendants) convicted in a court of first instance was 4,454 (down 13.7% from the previous year), with the proportion to the total number of convicted persons being 6.3% in 2010 (Source: Annual Report of Judicial Statistics).
The number of persons conclusively disposed in cases requiring interpreters (refers to cases in which foreign defendants are accompanied by interpreters/translators; hereinafter the same in this subsection) was 3,352 (down 17.9% from the previous year) in 2010. A total of 37 different languages were used in those interpretations: in descending order of frequency, Chinese for 1,043 defendants (31.1%), Tagalog 394 (11.8%), Korean 378 (11.3%), Portuguese 342 (10.2%), Spanish 245 (7.3%), and Vietnamese 233 (7.0%) (Source: The General Secretariat, Supreme Court).
(2) Sentencing
Fig. 4-1-3-4 shows the number of persons convicted and sentenced (limited to imprisonment with or without work) in a court of first instance in cases requiring interpreters over the last 10 years. The number of persons convicted was decreasing from 2004, and was 3,262 (of whom three were sentenced to life imprisonment) in 2010. The suspended execution rate was remarkably high at 76.2% when compared to that of Japanese nationals (58.2%).
This is due to the fact that the suspended execution rate for Immigration Control Act violation cases requiring interpreters was significantly high at 91.9%. The suspended execution rate for cases requiring interpreters, but excluding Immigration Control Act violations, was 69.2% (Source: The General Secretariat, Supreme Court).
Fig. 4-1-3-4 Number of persons convicted (those sentenced to imprisonment with/without work) in cases requiring interpreters in a court of first instance (2001-2010)
