Professor Johnson, a prominent scholar on the criminal justice system in Japan and comparative law and society, will discuss the fundamental differences in approach to criminal justice in Japan and the U.S. Focusing on the role of state and society in regulating and monitoring individual accountability, as demonstrated by differences in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion and the role of admission of guilt, he will draw on his extensive research to challenge us to re-examine basic assumptions about our own system of administering criminal justice.

About the Speakers
 

David T. Johnson is a professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii Manoa and the author of many works on criminal justice, including “The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan,” which received awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Society of Criminology. Professor Johnson’s teaching and research focus on criminal justice (police, prosecutors, and punishment, mainly in Japan and the US), comparative law and society, and the death penalty. He was an Advanced Research Fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs and received a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from Boalt Hall School of Law at University of California at Berkeley.

Kiyo A. Matsumoto was appointed as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York in July 2008, after serving as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York since July 2004. Following her graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Judge Matsumoto was a litigation associate at MacDonald, Hoague and Bayless in Seattle, Washington. Thereafter, she joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, where she served for over twenty years, as a Deputy Chief, First Deputy Chief and Chief of the Civil Division.