[DIRTYSECRET]

Jails are cheaper over there.

[keving]

Maybe his life is no better. Staring at 4 walls, isolation, no security. No having obligations can been found patience?

Why bother if you live this way.

All I heard in college was who great the Japanese were. Times changes and living well is he measure of success.

[lefty-lie-spy]

I’ve often walked by the prison. It’s a nondescript place in a mixed business / residential area behind massive and very tall concrete walls.

[Mark17]

There are many places, where old criminals would rather stay in prison, than get out.

[posterchild]

That’s the most depressing thing I’ve read in a while. People who would trade a ‘lead role in a cage’ for real life.

[Steven Scharf]

Their mistake is in prosecuting these cases. These men would not be attempting to get in if they knew it was fruitless to commit the petty crimes.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Not just in Japan - part of the human psyche is that people "institutionalized" over long periods of time, including prisoners and mental patients, become accustomed to the structure, predictability and protection of the institution and become afraid and depressed once released into freedom - Thomas Wolfe's novel Magic Mountain is about a man who goes to a TB sanitarium for a period of time and has difficulty reestablishing himself in life outside the hospital when cured - liberty where one is responsible for oneself can be scary......

[x]

If you lose your honor, you become an untouchable, and that's hard to take in a country where social interaction (and honor) are very highly valued, so why not stay in prison? Maybe not literally untouchable (Burakumin) but I'd imagine you'd have a tough life outside of the joint.

I wonder if this applies to the gangsta Yakuza as well as to people who get imprisoned for other things. Gangs and the mob at least do provide a social structure that can be emotionally supportive (at least until it's your turn to be whacked).