Recently, he has been representing Christopher Lavinger, an American jailed in Japan for possessing drugs, who is seeking damages from the British clothing company Burberrys. He acted for William Hayes, the American convicted of drug smuggling in Turkey whose experiences inspired the film Midnight Express. Michael Griffith, founding attorney of the International League of Defence Counsel, a US law firm which specialises in representing defendants in foreign countries, said: “They don’t have to recruit these workers. They don’t have to insure them, or give them sick pay, or fulfil any of the obligations that they would in a regular factory. They know that their workers can never complain, or join a trade union, or get headaches, or take time off.

Why should these companies get the benefit of convict labour? It is sheer, naked exploitation, and it is a disgrace in any country that calls itself a civilised democracy.”Griffith has made a career out of defending incarcerated foreigners in trouble all over the world. “The prison authority in Japan tries to co-operate with private companies which provide prison industry with a sufficient amount of useful work, thus improving prospects for rehabilitation.”But foreign prisoners do not find the work rehabilitating. “Prison work is an inherent part of imprisonment with labour,” says Kosuke Tsubouchi, director of the Tokyo regional Correction Headquarters. There are two 10-minute tea breaks during the day and one 20-minute lunch break. They cannot go to the toilet without permission, which is frequently withheld.The Japanese Ministry of Justice maintains that because it is organised and supervised by prison authorities who enter into contracts with private companies, prison labour does not violate the ILO convention.

Workers must maintain absolute silence in the factories, and are not allowed to make eye contact with one another or their guards. As well as punishing inmates who refuse to work at Fuchu Prison, prisoners are forced to labour for private companies under a system of draconian discipline and for tiny wages. “Japanese companies that participate in this type of programme are promoting indentured servitude,” said Congressman Gary Ackerman, who held hearings on forced labour.”It is simply impossible for companies that abide by international standards to compete with goods produced by prisoners working eight and half hours a day for slave wages.” Japan is accused of breaking Convention Number 29 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which prevents prisoners working for “private individuals, companies or associations” without their consent and without proper wages Japan appears to breach both these conditions. Webb grew from 13 stone to 21 stone and by the end of his sentence was so weak and obese he had to be moved in a wheelbarrow. “The first time I saw him I barely recognised him,” said Mariko Kuyame, his girlfriend from the English school. “He couldn’t talk to me because he had not spoken for so long he had forgotten how.”But Webb and other foreign prisoners said that, if anything, the conditions were worse for Japanese inmates, who had broken the strong social taboos against crime, which give Japan the lowest crime rates in the industrialised world.Fuchu, where Webb finished his sentence making shopping bags for Japanese department stores , has 28 factories in the jail and is the focus of a growing international controversy about Japan’s use of prison labour to produce goods for export.The outcry has been loudest in the United States, in part because of the large numbers of American in Japanese jails but also because the issue of “slave labour” in prisons chimes with fears about “unfair” competition from Japan.Sega, the Japanese computer games company, dropped the use of prison labour after American lawyers raised the issue and there have been angry denunciations from politicians. I would wake up in the night and find cockroaches running all over me.”The authorities make no apology for keeping prisoners motionless on the floor.

“If a man is standing up you don’t know if it is to have a drink of water or illegally communicate with prisoners in another cell,” explained one official.As Webb became sicker, the prison doctors prescribed tranquillisers and anti-depressants and in such large doses that he became addicted to them The drugs meant he retained water and his body ballooned. Like all other prisoners confined to their cells, he was not allowed to move. “I had to sit cross-legged until 5pm, while the Japanese had to kneel You could not exercise or lean against a wall I got weals on my feet and excruciating back pains The jail was damp and infested with insects. “They handcuffed me and tied me to a chair and slapped me around the face. I couldn’t see a lawyer or my friends until I said what they wanted me to say.”Webb served his three-and-a-half-year sentence in the Kosuge detention centre and Fuchu maximum security jail, both in Tokyo. He was “blind drunk” after an office Christmas party, he said in mitigation. But he was subjected to relentless interrogation because the police wanted him to implicate his brother, who was subsequently acquitted of involvement in the crime.”I was questioned for days on end,” he said.