Japan is the only industrialized country, other than Korea, in which crime rates during the past half century have declined. This may be because Japanese officials and culture reinforce the values of confession, repentance, forgiveness, and leniency. When Japanese offenders confess, offenders or their families typically approach victims to make redress and seek forgiveness, and victims typically accept the offering of redress and offer pardon, which is often communicated formally to prosecutors and courts. Japanese criminal justice officials are primarily concerned with controlling criminal behavior through the processes of confession, repentance, and forgiveness, built on community mechanisms of social control. In the presence of confession and forgiveness, some prosecutors tend to divert most cases, and those that reach court are handled with leniency. The Japanese approach is not fully explained by cultural differences with Western societies; the values of confession, repentance, and forgiveness are also found in Western cultures; however, Western legal institutions tend to ignore these values and, instead, reinforce demands for retribution and revenge. 2 tables and 60 references