The Japanese Way of Justice: An Up-close Look at Japan’s Jack McCoy A Review of The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan

Dah dum, the Mike Post driving theme song begins, and the baritone voiceover lectures: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups, the police that investigate crime and the district attorneys that prosecute the offenders: these are their stories . . . .” This is the memorable beginning to one of the most successful and longest running television shows in American history—Law & Order. Despite its enduring appeal in the United States, Law & Order has not caught on in Japan even though the legal drama genre has been remarkably successful there—both Ally McBeal and L.A. Law have become wildly popular. After reading David T. Johnson’s book, The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan, 4 I now know why. The tensions and potential conflicts that are Law & Order’s raison d'être and which make it so compelling for American audiences simply do not exist in Japan. Thus, the show cannot surmount the significant hurdle of cultural and contextual familiarity necessary for a Japanese audience to appreciate the program’s drama. As Johnson points out in