Japan was a large, diverse society, and so there was a wide range of opinions. The general view of Tojo and the other Tokyo trial defendants was that they had recklessly and irresponsibly taken Japan into a war that it could not win and which had led the Japanese nation to the brink of destruction. There was very little sympathy for them. Even as the procedural anomalies of the Tokyo Trial became better known, there was little sympathy for them (and there is no significant movement today that celebrates them).

News of Japanese war crimes against local people in occupied territories had not circulated during the war. As head of the Allied occupation forces, General MacArthur made sure that graphic photos were widely distributed. These photos shocked Japanese people and many returning Japanese soliders encountered a cool reception because they were suspected of complicity. Relatives of war criminals convicted in Allied courts experienced hostile discrimination (e.g. the sisters of war criminals found it hard to marry, especially given the overall shortage of men). Over time, this attitude changed. Although many of those convicted were truly guilty, there were some examples of poor court procedure (e.g. acceptance of unreliably perjured evidence). Some trials, moreover, were for relatively minor crimes (beatings) or for situations that were beyond the control of the defendant (failure to supply food when food was simply unavailable). Information on these cases cast doubt on the validity of all the trials. Japanese public scepticism towards the trials was exacerbated by the perception that 'big fish' often escaped prosecution, leaving their subordinates to carry the can for decisions by senior officers.

It was very rare in post-war Japan to encounter a person who could be identified as an 'unconvicted perpetrator of war crimes', because associating an individual with an atrocity committed far away and some time earlier was difficult. The best known case, Tsuji Masanobu, who evaded prosecution and resurfaced in Japan after the trials were over, was publicly attacked by a fellow officer who felt that he had been forced to carry responsibility for war crimes committed by Tsuji.