Japan PM Takaichi Stresses Importance of Retrial System Reform

Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday emphasized the importance of a government bill to reform the country’s retrial system. The bill to revise the criminal procedure law “has great significance because it is intended to ensure that victims of wrongful convictions are rescued and to facilitate and speed up related procedures,” she told a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, stressing her resolve to aim for its early enactment. “Currently, it takes a long time for acquittal rulings to become final in retrials, imposing heavy burdens on people concerned,” Takaichi said, adding, “We need to take the situation seriously and make necessary improvements.” The government bill prohibits in principle public prosecutors from filing appeals against court decisions to start retrials. A counterproposal submitted by opposition parties to “completely ban” such appeals was also discussed at the meeting. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi sounded negative about fully prohibiting prosecutors’ appeals, saying, “A total ban would mean that a ruling finalized under the country’s three-tier trial system will be overturned only by a single court decision and would therefore undermine courts’ dispute-settling functions.” The government bill has removed a provision in the current law that allows an appeal and while permitting it only when “there are sufficient grounds.” It prohibits the presentation of evidence disclosed by the prosecution to third parties for purposes other than retrial procedures and preparations for the retrial. Hiraguchi tried to ease concern over this, saying that “an unreasonable situation” will not be created because “only those who use such evidence to gain profits would be subject to punishment.” A new provision enabling courts to order prosecutors to submit evidence when they find such disclosure necessary has been added to the bill. Hiraguchi stressed that the scope of evidence to be disclosed will not become narrower than at present. Meanwhile, he voiced caution over the disclosure of the prosecution’s lists of evidence, which he said “would lack consistency in light of the screenings of retrial requests and the procedural structure.” The opposition counterproposal was jointly submitted by the Centrist Reform Alliance, Team Mirai and the Japanese Communist Party. The total ban on prosecutors’ appeals in the bill is designed to prevent retrial procedures from becoming lengthy. To support victims of false convictions, the bill does not have a provision prohibiting the use of disclosed evidence for purposes other than the original intent. “Appeals by prosecutors have become common, making retrial procedures lengthy,” Chinami Nishimura of the CRA said. “They need to be banned without exception.” The government and ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party hope that the government bill will be enacted during the current Diet session, set to end in mid-July. The retrial system has never been amended since the establishment of the criminal procedure law in 1948. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]