Autopsies for Only 10% of Suspicious Deaths
The Yomiuri reports that a mere 10% of suspicious deaths in Japan are followed-up with autopsies:
Japan’s autopsy rate is the lowest among advanced nations, compared with 100 percent in Finland and Sweden and 50 to 60 percent in Britain, the United States and Australia.
Chiba University Prof. Hirotaro Iwase, director of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, said people in other developed countries are aware of the public service role that forensic autopsies play in protecting bereaved families’ rights.
He also emphasized how determining the cause of death can lead to advances in medical research and treatment.
“It doesn’t mean people in these countries like autopsies,” said Iwase. “It depends on whether the government explains their importance for the sake of the deceased and their bereaved families and therefore gains public trust.”
In another article, it is noted that the current system of asking university hospitals to perform autopsies is would be hopelessly overloaded if authorities tried to increase the percentage beyond the current 10%:
Ten universities reported a single doctor having performed more than 100 autopsies last year. At Akita University in Akita, one doctor performed 284 autopsies.
The survey results suggest the current autopsy system, which depends heavily on universities’ resources, is close to exhaustion.
Japan is a pretty safe country, but it’s not unreasonable to expect that its incredibly low homicide rate may have something to do with its low autopsy rate.
Edit: A Japan Times article provides a bit more information on this issue, clarifying that “suspicious deaths” are deaths that are deemed to have occurred due to “unnatural” or “unidentified” causes:
Autopsies are performed for the most part only when police suspect foul play, and around 90 percent of “unnatural deaths” are not subject to postmortem examination. Compounding the problem is a shortage of autopsy experts, and inadequate financial and material resources to support them.
This is in sharp contrast to other developed countries. In the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, for example, autopsies are conducted in about 40 percent to 50 percent of cases of unnatural death, and where coroners, who act as independent forensic examiners, decide if such scrutiny is necessary.
The term “unnatural death” is used in cases where the cause is not immediately clear. Police usually make the “unnatural death” determination by a visual inspection of the corpse, and send only “suspicious” cases to qualified universities for an autopsy.
The article also contains one concrete example of how Japan’s system failed to detect a murder. In the infamous case of the young sumo wrestler who was hazed and beaten to death by his superiors, Japanese police ignored the many bruises on the boy’s body and simply ruled it a “heart failure from unknown causes.” The victim’s parents demanded that the police order an autopsy in that case, and it was ultimately proven that a crime had taken place.
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