An interesting label

While at Shinjuku station, I spotted an apron that caught my eye.  It was a traditional dark blue apron tied at the waist with an orange, white, and blue braided band.  They eye-catching part was the big white letters spelling "PRISON" on the front. 

I immediately asked my husband what on earth they meant by the word prison.  He told me it was an apron made by a prisoner.  In fact, prisoners make all kinds of goods in Japan which are sold at retail shops next to the prisons and special sales like this one.

The sale included a huge array of items from aprons to furniture.  I saw bags of all shapes, sizes, and materials, as well as shoes, wood crafts, and pads of paper. 

The sale made me wonder about this system.  So, I did a bit of research and learned that prisons in Japan require the inmates to work. This doesn't sit well with many other countries around the world, but Japan stays steadfast that their policy of having prisoners work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, keeps them out of trouble and teaches them valuable skills for the outside world.

Prisoners work either for companies that contract work to the prisons or in shops that teach them trades like furniture building or book binding.  They get paid very little for this work, approximately $.50 to $1.50 per day.  The products made in the shops are sold to the public.  The proceeds are used to run the program and buy additional materials. The remainder of the proceeds goes to victim support programs.

Many of the products have labels on them identifying which prison they were made at.  Popular items include penguin dolls, shoulder bags, Blue Stick soap, and soy sauce and miso. 

It is not every day that I run across something so controversial in Tokyo.  But this one definitely required some pondering on whether a person wants to support this form of retail goods and programs or not.