This story from Stars and Stripes caught my eye: "Suspect refused to pay $50,000 as apology to throat-slashing victim" I just can't resist a good throat-slashing apology.

The quick summary:

While under examination by his defense attorney, Masayuki Akamine, Daniels, 29, a former Marine married to a sailor, said he at first offered $2,000 in cash, a wristwatch and a letter of apology to his friend, Bryant White, 23, whose throat was slit in an altercation with Daniels and Marine Sgt. Michael Avinger, 30.

According to Daniels, White eventually asked for $50,000 and Daniels refused to pay it.

"I said no," Daniels said. "I could have paid him the money, but I didn't rob Mr. White or stab him. I'm sorry it happened to him. But I thought it was ridiculous, you know, 50,000 in American dollars."

In the U.S. legal system we might call offering an extrajudicial payoff to a crime victim bribery, witness tampering or somesuch. In Japan, it is apparently called "Jidan" and it's part of their system:

Under the Japanese legal system, defendants in criminal cases traditionally offer jidan, or "I'm sorry" money, to the victims as a way of showing remorse.

Even in cases where a defendant pleads not guilty, an apology is offered to show sympathy for the pain the victim has gone through. The sincerity of the jidan carries a lot of weight in the sentencing process.

I am not personally familiar with the Japanese criminal justice system, so I don't know if defendants are innocent until proven guilty or get pressed under heavy stones until they confess or what. I find it interesting that even if you plead not guilty, you are expected to offer the victim of the alleged crime some of that "I'm sorry" money. That seems bizarre to me ... but, then, so does eating sea urchins, which the Japanese apparently find delicious. And don't get me started on Pokemon.

But rather than blather on in complete ignorance, I found this scholarly-seeming paper on "The role of apology in the Japanese criminal justice system" by Professor Yoko Hosoi and Professor Haruo Nishimura. I will comment further when I get around to reading it.