At the Irregular Rythm Asylum blog, Shiga announces [ja] that she received a letter from Chinpô-san [珍宝さん], a Japanese who has been serving his term of life imprisonment at Bangwang Central Prison for over 10 years. Chinpô explained that starting this year, Japanese and Thai governments will cooperate in the transfer of prisoners from Thailand to Japan, so that Chinpô-san (and other Japanese prisoners) returning to Japan will not have to stay in prison forever [since there is no life imprisonment in Japan]. The plan is not yet finalized, however, and Shiga encourages readers to send messages to the MOFA to push for the realization of the project.