1.
life imprisonment; indeterminate imprisonment
A prison sentence with no fixed end date, the most severe punishment in Japan short of the death penalty.
被告は無期懲役を言い渡された。
The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment.
検察は無期懲役を求刑した。
The prosecution demanded life imprisonment.
死刑か無期懲役かが争点となった裁判だった。
It was a trial where the issue was whether the sentence would be death or life imprisonment.
Composed of 無期 (indefinite, no fixed term) + 懲役 (imprisonment with hard labor). In Japan, 無期懲役 does not necessarily mean spending the rest of one's life in prison — parole is theoretically possible after serving at least 10 years, though in practice most serve 25-30 years or more before parole consideration.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 無期懲役を言い渡す: to hand down a life sentence
- 無期懲役を求刑する: to demand life imprisonment
- 無期懲役の判決: a life imprisonment verdict
- 無期懲役囚: a life prisoner
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 有期懲役: fixed-term imprisonment — has a defined sentence length, contrasting with the indefinite nature of 無期懲役
- 死刑: death penalty — the only heavier sentence in the Japanese penal system
- 終身刑: life sentence without parole — does not exist in current Japanese law but is sometimes used when discussing foreign legal systems