Japan Top Court Seeks Judge Dismissal over Online Gambling

Tokyo, May 14 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Supreme Court has requested a related parliamentary commission to file a petition with the Judge Impeachment Court to seek the dismissal of a judge indicted for alleged habitual gambling through an online casino site. The behavior by Akifumi Morimoto, 52, the judge in question at Niigata Summary Court in the central Japan city of Niigata, “amounted to a delinquency undermining the dignity of judges,” the top court said as it made the request Wednesday. Morimoto was indicted without arrest by the Akita District Public Prosecutors Office on April 17 on suspicion of accessing an online casino site more than 60,000 times with his smartphone and tablet computer and engaging in gambling, such as on baccarat, in April-September 2023, when he was living in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan. According to the Supreme Court, he has admitted the allegations and expressed remorse. If the petition is filed by the parliamentary commission, the impeachment court would handle the case to decide whether Morimoto should be dismissed. “It is very regrettable that we had to take procedures to seek the dismissal of an active judge,” Masamichi Itatsu, head of the Supreme Court’s Personnel Affairs Bureau, said. “We will make efforts to regain public trust in judges,” he added. A total of eight judges have been dismissed in Japan since the end of World War II, including Kiichi Okaguchi, who received a dismissal ruling from the impeachment court in 2024 for making inappropriate social media posts. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]