Japan

detainees gained access to the infirmaries’ medical supplies.

Two men, Georgian and Albanian nationals, died in January and July respectively in the repatriation centre of Gradisca d’Isonzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Investigations were ongoing at the end of the year.

There were numerous reports of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by prison staff and police officers.

Investigations were ongoing into reports that prison officers beat detainees, leaving several gravely injured, at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison, near Naples, on 6 April, when some 300 prison officers were brought in for an inspection.

In July, prosecutors in Turin, Piedmont, accused 25 people, including the prison director and many officers, of committing or facilitating torture and other ill-treatment against detainees between March 2017 and September 2019.

The trial of five prison officers and a doctor charged with torture in relation to a 2018 case in the prison of San Gimignano, Siena, was ongoing at the end of the year. A further 15 prison officers remained under investigation.

In March, the government suspended evictions and subsequently extended the measure until the end of the year. Despite this, in August local authorities forcibly evicted the Roma settlement of Foro Italico in Rome. Most of the residents had abandoned their homes in the days preceding. Many families were left homeless.

Local authorities failed to ensure that migrant workers employed to pick fruit − often in exploitative conditions − in the Piana di Gioia Tauro, Calabria, had access to adequate protection against COVID-19, including adequate housing. Hundreds of migrants endured the pandemic in informal settlements without electricity and sanitation, and with inadequate access to drinking water and food.

Many homeless people across the country could not access safe accommodation during the lockdown and struggled to find food and assistance due to the closure of public kitchens and dormitories where COVID-19 cases had been recorded.

Women’s rights NGOs reported an increase in domestic violence during lockdown. Official data recorded over 23,000 calls to a national help line which in 2019 received approximately 13,400.

In October, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers (the Committee), supervising the implementation of the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Talpis v. Italy, expressed concern at the high rate at which proceedings for domestic violence were discontinued at pre-trial stage. The Committee requested that by 31 March 2021, the authorities provide information and data about protection orders and risk assessments for victims.

The prevalence of gynaecologists who objected to abortion for reasons of conscience remained a significant obstacle to access the right to abortion. In August, the Ministry of Health approved new guidance to extend access to medical abortion.

1. Europe: Punishing compassion: Solidarity on trial in fortress Europe (EUR 01/1828/2020)

Japan Head of government: Yoshihide Suga (replaced Shinzo Abe in September)

On 28 August, Shinzo Abe announced his resignation after serving as prime minister for almost eight consecutive years. The Tokyo Olympics and the UN Congress for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, both scheduled for 2020, were postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, a law was revised with the goal of ensuring that companies take measures to stop employees from being harassed by staff in positions of relative power. The revision included provisions to protect LGBTI people from “outing” or other abuse based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Small and medium enterprises had until April 2022 to introduce relevant measures, while compliance from larger companies was expected immediately.

The national government took no steps towards the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, but an increasing number of local municipalities introduced ordinances or guidelines that acknowledged same-sex unions. There were 69 such municipalities, covering approximately one third of the population at year ’s end. A bill introduced in 2018 by opposition political parties to outlaw discrimination against LGBTI people remained under examination at the national Diet (parliament) at year ’s end.

The numbers of women reporting domestic violence, which had been on the rise for 16 consecutive years, increased sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 There were 13,000 reported cases in April, 29% higher than the same month in 2019.

Journalist Shiori Ito won a civil lawsuit in December 2019 against a high-profile male journalist, who had sexually assaulted her after inviting her to dinner to discuss a job opportunity in 2015. Although no criminal charges were brought against him, the verdict was considered a major step for the #MeToo movement in the country, where victims of sexual harassment or other such abuse rarely speak up. Despite winning the court case, Shiori Ito faced further attacks on social media, which led her to file defamation lawsuits in June against a woman cartoonist and two men.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health workers and their families faced discrimination in access to services. According to media reports, some health workers were subject to abuse during house calls, or were denied medical care, taxi or restaurant services. The family members of some health workers were suspended from work. Although the authorities warned that discrimination against health workers and their families was unacceptable, there were media reports that children of health workers were denied day care services and access to recreational facilities, or became targets of bullying.

Authorities responsible for distribution of COVID-19 assistance discriminated against ethnic Korean schools. In March, the city government of Saitama excluded an ethnic Korean kindergarten from an initiative to distribute face masks to workers providing care or education to pre-school children. Students at the Korea University in Tokyo were excluded from government payments designed to help students facing financial difficulties caused by the pandemic. The university is attended primarily by ethnic Koreans, some of whom were Japanese citizens.2

In March, the authorities reported that 44 out of 10,375 asylum applications in 2019 were accepted as refugees. Existing laws allowed the authorities to indefinitely detain undocumented foreign nationals, including asylum-seekers and irregular migrants, until