not actually entitled codes, we may also include: (4) the Constitution, with its attendant laws regarding the Imperial House, the Diet, and Finance; (5) the Laws for the Exercise of Local Self-Government; and (6) divers statutes on miscellaneous subjects.
Crimes, as classified in the Criminal Code, are of three kinds, namely: (1) crimes against the state or the Imperial Family, and in violation of the public credit, policy, peace, health, etc.; (2) crimes against persons and property; (3) police offences. There is furthermore a subdivision of (1) and (2) into major and minor crimes.
The punishments for major crimes are: (1) death by hanging; (2) deportation with or without hard labour, for life or for a term of years; (3) imprisonment with or without hard labour, for life or for a term of years. The punishments for minor crimes include confinement with or without hard labour, and fines. The punishments for police offences are detention for from one to ten days without hard labour, and fines varying from 5 sen to 2 yen. The court which tries persons accused of major crimes consists of three judges, that for minor crimes of one judge or three according to the gravity of the charge, and that for police offences of one juge de paix.[1] An appeal is allowed in the case of both major and of minor crimes for a trial of facts. Capital punishments are carried out in the presence of a procurator. They are now extremely rare. Criminals condemned to deportation are generally sent to the island of Yezo, where they sometimes work in the mines. The ordinary prisons are situated in various parts of the empire, and number one hundred and thirty-two.
A person who has suffered injury from crime lodges his complaint at a police office or with the procurator of any court having jurisdiction over the crime in question. Policemen can arrest an offender whose crime was committed in their presence, or which the complainant avers to have actually seen committed. In all other cases they can arrest by warrant only. Bail is allowed at the
- ↑ The system being French, it seems advisable to retain the French terms in cases where there is no exact, or no generally current, English equivalent.
