Japan enacts laws to introduce digital arrest warrants by FY2026
The Diet on Friday enacted bills to introduce digital arrest warrants and other documents related to criminal procedures by March 2027, signaling a major shift in the country's investigation processes that are predominantly carried out in person and documented on paper.
The revisions of laws including the Code of Criminal Procedure are expected to ease the burden on investigators who currently must be physically present at court to apply for and receive warrants. Under the revisions, the slips can be requested and received online and executed by displaying them on tablet devices.
Criminal complaints, testimonies and other legal documents will also be digitized, and defense attorneys will have online access to documents they currently obtain by making hard copies following indictments.
The changes will also expand remote court participation via video link for defendants or witnesses unable to appear due to circumstances such as illness, and for victims and bereaved relatives seeking to avoid direct contact with defendants.
In Japan, video link use in court proceedings has been limited to certain cases such as sexual abuse.
The legislation will allow investigative authorities to issue online orders requesting telecommunications operators to disclose emails and other electronic data. At present, they need to visit the operators' offices and save the data onto physical memory devices when seizing them as part of investigations.
Failure by the operators to provide requested data would be penalized.
The revisions stopped short of allowing lawyers' interviews with suspects and defendants to be conducted online despite calls for introduction by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
© KYODO
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
3 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Iran envoy urges A-bombed Japan to stand against U.S. attacks
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Iranian ambassador to Japan Peiman Seadat has urged Tokyo to stand against U.S. and Israeli strikes on nuclear facilities in his nation after President Donald Trump's remark likening the U.S. attacks to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ambassador said in a recent interview with Kyodo News that the comment is an "insult" not only to Iran, but also to Japan, the world's only country to have suffered atomic bombings. Japan should raise a "very loud voice," Seadat said, adding that Japan's voice is "important" to the international community. The interview was held after the United States, Japan's close ally, bombarded key Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday. Israel and Iran had been engaged in a tit-for-tat conflict following Israeli airstrikes on military and nuclear targets on June 13 before announcing a cease-fire on Tuesday. Trump said Wednesday during his visit to the Netherlands for a NATO summit, "I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war." Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in a statement Monday that Japan "understands" the U.S. military action as a demonstration of its resolve to de-escalate the situation while preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Stability in the Middle East is vital for resource-poor Japan, given its heavy dependence on the region for crude oil, and it has traditionally maintained friendly ties with Iran. Seadat criticized Trump's reference to the atomic bombings on the two Japanese cities in the closing days of World War II as an "outrageous" and "irresponsible" statement showing "total disregard for human suffering." The envoy said the U.S. attacks on the nuclear sites deserve "global condemnation," calling them "acts of aggression" committed in violation of international law. He also said that "forcing peace is not peace," in reference to Trump's comment on his Truth Social media site that "Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region." The U.S. military action right in the middle of nuclear negotiations was an act of "betrayal by the Trump administration," Seadat said.
The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Woman handed suspended term over hammer attack at Japan univ. campus
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese court on Friday sentenced a woman to three years in prison, suspended for four years, for injuring eight students in a hammer attack at a university campus in suburban Tokyo. The court found Yoo Ju Hyun, a 23-year-old South Korean, guilty of injuring the students on Jan. 10 at Hosei University's Tama Campus in Machida. The presiding judge put her actions down to a mental disorder she was suffering. The series of attacks on defenseless students were "dangerous and shocking," said Presiding Judge Keita Nakajima in handing down the ruling at the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa branch. Yoo, who was a second-year student in the university's Faculty of Social Sciences at the time, had claimed she was bullied and insulted by some students. Nakajima said while it cannot be said that there was no bullying at all, there was no evidence that the eight victims, some of which suffered head injuries, had insulted her. However, the judge said that Yoo's actions were influenced to a considerable extent by an obsessive-compulsive disorder and other factors.
The Mainichi
11 hours ago
- The Mainichi
US State Secretary Rubio's 1st visit to Japan eyed for July
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese and U.S. governments are arranging for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make his first visit to Japan early next month, a Japanese government source said Friday. Rubio is also considering visiting South Korea as part of a trip to Asia to attend a series of foreign ministerial meetings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia, according to the source.
