Before exploring the history of the Dockyard and the Dormitory, it is helpful to overview
the adult prison system in Japan. All 62 prisons in Japan are operated by the national
government. The total prison population has been trending downwards since 2005
when it was over 70,000, and at the end of 2012 it was 58,726. The occupancy rate at
the end of 2012 was 82.2 per cent (Ministry of Justice (Japan), 2013: 17). The
incarceration rate in Japan was 51 persons per 100,000, while this rate stood at 148 in
England and Wales (International Centre for Prison Studies, 2014)