Amnesty International has criticized Japan in its report on the state of the world's human rights in 2014/15.

In the report released on Tuesday, Amnesty said the "daiyo kangoku" system, which allows police to detain suspects for up to 23 days without charging them, continued to facilitate torture and other ill-treatment in order to extract confessions during interrogation. "No steps were taken to abolish or reform the system to bring it into line with international standards," the report said.

Japan also came in for criticism over the death penalty. "Executions continued in Japan, the report said. "In March, a court ordered a retrial and the immediate release of Hakamada Iwao. Hakamada Iwao had been sentenced to death in 1968 after an unfair trial on the basis of a forced confession, and was the longest-serving death row inmate in the world."

Amnesty said the Japanese government failed to speak out against discriminatory rhetoric, or curb the use of racially pejorative terms and harassment against ethnic Koreans and their descendants, who are commonly referred to as Zainichi (literally “residing in Japan”). In December, the Supreme Court ruled to ban the group Zainichi Tokken wo Yurusanai Shimin no Kai from using racially pejorative terms against Koreans, while holding public demonstrations near an ethnic Korean elementary school.

On the subject of Japan's use of sex slaves prior to and during World War II, the report said the results were made public of a government-appointed study which re-examined the drafting process of the Kono Statement (a government apology made two decades earlier to the survivors of the sex slave system.

"Several high-profile public figures made statements to deny or justify the system," the report said. "The government continued to refuse to officially use the term 'sexual slavery,' and to deny effective reparation to its survivors."

© Japan Today