Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/07/japan-is-turning-this-1908-pri.html
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Branding is everything.
Seriously though, this is cool. It’s nice to see a country whose government isn’t eager to lock up as many people as possible.
Those fools! Don’t they know it’s haunted?
Japan has a very old-fashioned approach to law and order, including a great enthusiasm for the death penalty. I wouldn’t assume that the old prison has not been replaced by a new one.
Aha! Foucalt’s analysis of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison design is at least one important thing I remember from college.
The constant surveillance theme should really help one get a good night’s sleep, yes?
http://www.adpsr.org/home/prison_design_and_control
Foucault believed that disciplinary systems, and prisons in particular (with the Panopticon as the ideal type) were social failures. He considered that the way disciplinary systems crush individuality and individual freedom is antithetical to positive social goals such as rehabilitation and peaceful coexistence. He also saw the inherent cruelty of prison buildings for what they are - spaces where state agents, dedicated to maintaining state power, exact revenge and enforce discipline on those who fail to abide by the system.
This is not a terribly uncommon use for old prisons, though the timeline from closure to re-purposing seems unusually fast here.
Isn’t that half the fun?
John Mason : The Rock has become a tourist attraction?
Japan’s population is going down, not up. Demographically, they’re going to need fewer prisons going forward.
Three hots and a cot.
Now you can check out any time you like, and you can also leave!
Yep, seems to me this is the ideal setup for a variety of different anime genres. Romance! Post-apocalyptic horror! Post-apocalyptic horror romance! So many possibilities.
I was thinking live-action horror.
I was wondering if this was going to be run by McMenamins.
Nara is over 450km away from Tokyo. I very much doubt that this hotel will get much use in connection with the 2020 Olympics.
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