I think Japan is like Korea, they also take away your identity as a human being. You are only addressed by your prison number on your uniform.
Correct, and life in prison is HIGHLY regimented.
The general attitude is that your errors developed as a result of some type of separation from THE GROUP; Alone is BAD, The Group is GOOD.
So your badness has to be washed out of you by you being submerged in The Proper Way, in The Group. 24 hours a day..? Why, yes.
When you go from building to building (marching in a column in a group? YES) it used to be a rule that upon each stride (of a set distance) you had to swing your arm up so that the whole arm is parallel to the ground:
That was liberalized some years ago and now the arm need be swung up to the 60 degree point.
The prison rulebook governs a BLIZZARD of daily behaviors.
Anyone going through USMC Boot or has been a member of a highly regimented dojo miiiiight know something close to the degree of regimentation I'm talking about, but they would still fall short of the mark.
They do things in Engrish if you're not Japanese, right..? Cuz Japanese is used only in Japan, right..?
Nope.
You're going to be totally fruent in Japaneezu and when you get out (if ever) you're going to be bowing and scraping and walking on eggshells and giggling and aporigizing if someone slams into you and is rude to you.
They will make Capitain Von Trapp (from The Sound of Music) seem like a pussified Rostafarian.