Sarah is in prison in Japan. After being arrested in September 2019, she has so far spent over two years on remand awaiting trial and a further 220 days trying to appeal her sentence. She is now waiting to become eligible for a transfer, but even this isn’t straightforward, as the cost of her flight back to the UK could well be debilitating. Despite all this, Sarah remains positive and, in the piece she wrote for the most recent overseas newsletter, continues to look to the future.

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 My name is Sarah*, and I want to share my story with you in as much detail as possible. I’m hoping it will help anyone who is in the same situation as me; detained overseas, asking so many questions, but receiving no answers from anyone.

In September 2019, I was arrested unofficially in Japan and taken to hospital, where I spent 12 days before being officially arrested. I was then taken to a police station where I slept in a cell on the floor with five women, none of whom could speak any English. I spent six months in that police station and was eventually transferred to Tokyo Detention Centre. There, at least I had my own room, which was unusual as many people shared cells. In Tokyo Detention Centre, you could buy your own food and wear your own clothes, but this privilege stops once you become sentenced.

My trial took place two years after my arrest in September 2021. The trial took two weeks and the verdict was announced at the end of September. I was found guilty and sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, with a fine of ¥3 million.

I spent a total of 745 days awaiting trial due to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. As a result of this, I received 550 days back, which was later deducted from my sentence.

I decided to appeal, and in May 2022 I had my hearing, which was unfortunately rejected. I spent 220 days appealing and received 160 days back from this. I could have taken the case to a higher Court of Appeal, but my partner had researched the Japanese criminal justice system and said that in cases where the Japanese authorities take a case to court, 99% result in a conviction and on appeal 99.9% of those convictions are upheld. I decided therefore to stop wasting my time, get my sentence served and try to get myself home.

After my appeal, I went back to Tokyo Detention Centre and a few days later was taken to a room to sort through my belongings and discuss my consent to transfer. If you are in prison in Japan, please be warned that this is your only change to send things home if you have a lot of belongings. Otherwise, my options were to take them or trash them, and I could only carry so much. I was told by my previous embassy worker and other people who have transferred that the weight limit is 6 kilos, but recently I’ve been told it’s now 10 kilos.

After signing the transfer paper and sorting my belongings, I was given a uniform and told that in the morning I would start working as a convicted prisoner. My personal food and some of my other personal belongings would be removed from my room if I hadn’t used or eaten them.

I started work in Tokyo Detention Centre making origami birds. Usually, people stay there for around two to four months, but I was only there for one week due to so many people waiting to be transferred.

I was then transferred to Tochigi prison, which is the main prison for foreign female detainees. I won’t say this whole experience has been easy because it hasn’t, but in Tokyo I was really happy – probably unusually happy for someone in my situation. I never cried or worried and was never stressed. I spent hours cleaning, which provided a distraction, and if I wasn’t doing that, I was able to have a laugh with the staff who were amazing.

However, as soon as I arrived in Tochigi, that all changed and I became a person I didn’t recognise. I became suicidal in the first few days.

I believe this was due to being very physically unwell. When you arrive at Tochigi, you are put into a single room for 24 hours a day for two whole weeks with no fans or air conditioning. I had a temperature of 39.9 degrees; as it was mid-June, it was extremely hot. The staff ignored me because they couldn’t understand me, and I genuinely thought I was going to die.

After two weeks of working in my room with no bed and nothing to distract me, I moved to a factory gluing plastic flowers together. This room had a television with one foreign channel. During this time, I was told my sentence would end in December 2027, but if I wanted to work off my fine then this date would change. After two weeks, I moved to the permanent factory making paper envelopes and folding shopping bags. I was placed in a shared bedroom with people from the same factory. It was now the middle of July.

A couple of days after I moved to this factory, I was taken to another meeting about the payment of my fine and asked if I wanted to pay ash or work it off. I wanted to pay cash, but because the money wasn’t in my prison funds account, I wasn’t able to indicate this properly on the form.

This caused problems because, in order to pay fines, your lawyer needs to take the money to the prosecutor’s office, but my lawyer wouldn’t accept such a large amount of money, so I now had to find and hire a new lawyer.

Nothing happened for two months after signing this paperwork. Then, in October I was taken to another meeting and told that I was about to start working to pay my fine. I had to move to a single room until the fine was paid, but this room at least had a bed. I was due to start working my fine off in October 2022 and it would be paid off by August 2023, making my new release date September 2028. The fine was deducted at a rate of ¥10,000 per day for 300 days. Thankfully the weekends and holiday days were also included in this, so technically you don’t work the full 300 days to pay off the fine.

In February, I managed to find a lawyer who could pay my fine to the prosecutor and, because I had already worked some of my fine off, I only needed to pay ¥1,750,000. With this factored in, I was given a new release date of April 2028.

I’ve been in Tochigi Prison nearly two years now, and detained in Japan for almost five years. It won’t be too much longer before I’m eligible for transfer, although I’ve been told the minister doesn’t sign the paperwork for a few months after the eligibility date.

In September 2023, I received a set of transfer papers to sign with a quote for the cost of my flight. I thought it was my final transfer papers at first and was gutted to find out it wasn’t. My quote for my flight was £1,115, but I’ve been told people have paid up to three times the amount of their quote.

Japanese prisons are like military institutions, but there are some good points. Their prisons are cleaner than prisons in the UK, but while in the UK you are allowed toiletries, in Japan we’re not even allowed to use soap or shampoo, only water. We get snacks on holiday days, which are almost every month and sometimes up to four times per month. Once you’ve been here for six months, you gain your privilege kevel and get a monthly snack. Although we have to pay for these from our salary, it’s still nice.

If you keep your head down and stay out of trouble, time will go faster. When I get back to the UK, I will write an update on when I got my final transfer papers, when I transferred, and my new release date – hopefully anyone in a similar situation can look to my story and find some comfort in it.

Remember, this isn’t forever. There was a time when I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through one year, but here I am now sitting with fifteen weeks until my transfer eligibility date – a day I never thought would come. Stay strong because your time will come too. Much love to you all.

*We have changed Sarah's name to protect her identity.

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