Japan to start discussions on reviewing retrial system Monday
A government advisory panel will start discussions Monday to review the country's retrial system for criminal cases in which guilty verdicts have become final, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Friday.
The Legislative Council, which advises the justice minister, will hold the first subcommittee meeting on the matter Monday.
The minister also announced the 14 members of the subcommittee, including former judge Hiroaki Murayama, who decided to start the retrial of Iwao Hakamata that led to his acquittal for the 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.
Murayama is currently a lawyer. In 2014, as presiding judge at the Shizuoka District Court, he gave the go-ahead to the retrial of Hakamata, whose death sentence had been finalized in 1980, and decided to suspend his sentence and detention. Lawyer Yumi Kamoshida, who has been advocating for a revision to retrial-related legislation, was also appointed.
Toshihiro Kawaide, professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate Schools for Law and Politics who specializes in criminal law, and Hiroshi Morimoto, director-general of the Justice Ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau, will join the subcommittee as well.
"They are suitable for considering the retrial system from a broad perspective," the justice minister said of the subcommittee members.
A suprapartisan group of lawmakers that seeks a review of the retrial system had asked the justice minister to include as subcommittee members victims of false charges and former judges who were involved in retrial cases, saying the composition of the panel would have a major impact on the content of its discussions. This time, victims of false accusations and their families were not included.
Japan's Code of Criminal Procedure does not clearly define how retrials should be handled or set guidelines for evidence disclosure by investigative authorities. This has led to drawn-out proceedings and inconsistent decisions on whether to grant retrials, depending heavily on individual judges' discretion.
Against this backdrop, the subcommittee is expected to focus on how evidence should be disclosed during the process of seeking a retrial and limitations on prosecutors' ability to appeal decisions to grant one.
The retrial-related legislation has never been revised since 1948, when the current Code of Criminal Procedure was enacted. If the review is realized, it will be a major turning point in the country's criminal justice history.
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