Skip to main content
Log in

Japan’s Reformed Prosecution Review Commission: Changes, Challenges, and Lessons

  • Published:
Asian Journal of Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article evaluates how Japan’s Prosecution Review Commission (PRC) has performed since it was reformed in 2009 to allow panels of 11 citizens to override the non-charge decisions of professional prosecutors. In the first eight cases of “mandatory prosecution” that have occurred since 2009, the conviction rate is 20%—far lower than Japan’s usual conviction rate, which exceeds 99%. In the ninth case of mandatory prosecution, three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company have been subject to mandatory prosecution for “professional negligence resulting in death and injury,” for failing to prevent the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima that were precipitated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, which killed 18,500 people and caused 200,000 more to flee their homes. As of 2018, the trial of the Tepco executives is still in progress. This evaluation study of prosecutorial reform in one Asian nation suggests that, in principle, prosecutors’ non-charge decisions can be checked and controlled. In practice, however, Japan’s PRC reform has done little to alter the standard operating procedures of professional prosecutors. Further reform of the PRC may be necessary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. As listed in the References at the end of this article, Professor Hiroshi Fukurai and co-authors have written several articles on Japan’s reformed Prosecution Review Commissions. In our view, that body of work seems too optimistic about the effects of the 2009 reform, though we recognize that most of it was written before much evidence was available.

  2. This citizens group called itself “The Group Seeking the Truth” (shinjitsu o motomeru kai). It consisted of about 10 people (all men), including a former newspaper writer, a former teacher, and a former government worker. All of the group’s members apparently opposed the Democratic Party of Japan (minshuto, now known as minshinto), which Ozawa Ichiro belonged to (Asahi Shimbun2010). In 1993, Ozawa (a member of parliament from Iwate Prefecture in the north of Honshu Island) had left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and he subsequently served as head of a number of different political parties, including the DPJ. He was widely regarded as a “shadow shogun” because of his powerful backroom influence—and he was widely believed to be corrupt (Schlesinger 1997; Carlson and Reed 2018). But some observers have criticized the citizens group for trying to use the PRC as a weapon in the political struggle to defeat Ozawa and destroy the DPJ (Mori 2012).

  3. On the Fukushima citizen group’s activities, see Field and Mizenko (2015) and Herber (2016).

  4. An internal report made by Tepco in 2008 stated that the company calculated the maximum possible height of a tsunami to be 15.7 m. On March 11, 2011, the actual maximum height of the tsunami has been estimated to be about the same: 14 to 15 m (Yomiuri Shimbun2015).

  5. One possible sign of increased media coverage of PRCs is “Shitei Bengoshi” (“Designated Attorney”), an Asahi TV drama about a PRC reviewing a corruption case that is, in some particulars, like the Moritomo Gakuen corruption case that implicated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe in 2017–2018. But in our view, this show (first broadcast on September 23, 2018) did not start auspiciously. Among other incredulities, the TV defendant (a former Minister of Justice) claimed that he had sold land illegally in order to obtain funds to support the lay judge system (asahi.com 2018).

References

  • asahi.com. 2018. Enari Kazuki, Kitagawa Keiko to Hatsu-kyoen. September 21, at https://www.asahi.com/and_w/interest/entertainment/CORI2119989.html. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Asahi Shimbun (2010). Minshu - Ozawa shi Kokuhatsu: ‘Shinjitsu o Motomeru Kai to wa’ 60’s Chushin ni 10nin, Seiji teki Ito Hitei. October 6, p.35.

  • Asahi Shimbun (2011). Ozawa Shi - Bengodan no Kaiken Ishikawa Moto Hisho Interview. February 1, p.38.

  • Asahi Shimbun (2013). Genpatsu Sosa Tsukushita ka. September 10, p.39.

  • Asahi Shimbun (2017). Toden moto Kaichora Kohan Zentetsuzuki. March 30, p.37.

  • Bach, A. (2009). Ordinary injustice: how America holds court. New York: Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlin, I. (1997) The proper study of mankind: an anthology of essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (edited by Henry Hardy and Roger Hausheer).

  • Birmingham, L., & McNeill, D. (2012). Strong in the rain: surviving Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyne, S. (2017). German prosecutors and the Rechtsstaat. In M. Langer & D. A. Sklansky (Eds.), Prosecutors and democracy: a cross-national study (pp. 138–174). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, M. M., & Reed, S. R. (2018). Political corruption and scandals in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K. C. (1969). Discretionary justice: a preliminary inquiry. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, A. J. (2007). Arbitrary justice: the power of the American prosecutor. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobrovolskaia, A. (2016). The development of jury service in Japan: a square block in a round hole? London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Egawa, S. (Ed.). (2011). Tokuso Kensatsu wa Hitsuyo ka. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeley, M. M. (1983). Court reform on trial: why simple solutions fail. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, N. (2016). From Fukushima: to despair properly, to find the next step. Asia-Pacific Journal, 14(17, No.3 (September)), 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Field, N., & Mizenko, M. (2015). Fukushima radiation: will you still say no crime has been committed? Tokyo: Kinyobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foote, D. H. (1992). The benevolent paternalism of Japanese criminal justice. California Law Review, 80(2), 317–390.

  • Foote, D. H. (2007). Japanese law at a turning point. In D. H. Foote (Ed.), Law in Japan: a turning point (pp. xix–xxxix). Seattle: University of Washington Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukui, A. (2016). Fukushima Dai-ichi Genpatsu Kakoku Jiko to ‘Kyosei Kiso’ Seido. Kyojo Hogaku, 9, 3–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H. (2007). The rebirth of Japan’s petit quasi-jury and grand jury systems: a cross-national analysis of legal consciousness and the lay participatory experience in Japan and the US. Cornell International Law Journal., 40(2), 315–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H. (2010). People’s panels vs. imperial hegemony: Japan’s twin lay justice systems and the future of American military bases in Japan. Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, 12(1), 95–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H. (2011a). Japan’s prosecutorial review commissions: lay oversight of the government’s discretion of prosecution. University of Pennsylvania East Asia Law Review, 6(Summer), 1–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H. (2011b). Japan’s quasi-jury and grand jury systems as deliberative agents of social change: de-colonial strategies and deliberative participatory democracy. Chicago-Kent Law Review., 86(2), 789–829.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H. (2013). A step in the right direction for Japan’s judicial reform: impact of the justice system reform council recommendations on criminal justice and citizen participation in criminal, civil, and administrative litigation. Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 36, 517ff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H., & Kurosawa, K. (2010). Impact of the popular legal participation on forced confessions and wrongful convictions in Japan’s bureaucratic courtroom: a cross-national analysis in the U.S. and Japan. U.S – China Law Review, 7(7), 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H., & Park, S. (2012). Korea’s two legal reforms of lay adjudication: the possible introduction of the grand jury (Japan’s prosecutorial review commission) system and the elimination of consent requirement to allow lay adjudication of American military felons in South Korea. Yonsei Law Journal, 3(1), 67–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukurai, H., & Wang, Z. (2014). People’s grand jury panels and the state’s inquisitorial institutions: prosecution review commissions in Japan and people’s supervisors in China. Fordham International Law Journal., 37(4), 929–972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fukushima Gempatsu Keiji Sosho Shiendan. [福島原発刑事訴訟支援団]. 2018. https://shien-dan.org/trial-report-20180131. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Gohara, N., & Mori, H. (2015). Kyoko no Hochi Kokka. Tokyo: Kodansha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, C. F. (2013). Prosecution review commissions, the public interest, and the rights of the accused: the need for a ‘grown up’ in the room. Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal., 22(1), 1–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasuike, T. (2011). Watashi ga Aishita Tokyo Denryoku. Kyoto: Kamogawa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasuike, T. (2018). Kokuhatsu: Nihon de Gempatsu o Saikado Shite wa Ikenai Mittsu no Riyu. Tokyo: Business-sha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herber, E. (2016). The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster: Japanese citizens’ role in the pursuit of criminal responsibility. Zeitschrift fuer Japanisches Recht/Journal of Japanese Law. No., 42, 87–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirano, R. (1989). Diagnosis of the current code of criminal procedure (translated by Daniel H. Foote). Law in Japan, 22, 129–142.

  • Hirayama, M. (2015). Lay participation and victims’ inputs: how these two key factors have changed the criminal justice system in Japan after the late 1990s. East Asian Legal Studies Annual Meeting at Waseda University, Tokyo, August 6, pp.1–6.

  • Igarashi, F. (2016). Ko Naosanakereba Saibanin Saiban wa Kudo ni Naru. Tokyo: Gendai Jinbunsha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Independent Web Journal (2013a). ‘Hijo ni Kitanai Yarikata’ Toden Kanbu ni taishi, Genkokudan ga Kibishiku Hihan – Fukushima Genpatsu Kokusodan Kisha Kaiken. September 9. https://iwj.co.jp/wj/open/archives/100894. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Independent Web Journal (2013b). Fukiso Shobun no Happyo no chokuzen ni, Fukushima kara Tokyo e Iso – Toden Kanbura no Shobun wa Jizen Kettei ka – Fukushima Genpatsu Kokusodan Kinkyu Shukai & Kisha Kaiken. September 13. https://iwj.co.jp/wj/open/archives/101348. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Itoh, S. (2017). Black box [Burakku Bokkusu]. Tokyo: Bungei Shunju.

    Google Scholar 

  • Japan Times. (1999). Kabutoyama called case of judicial shame. September 29.

  • Japan Times. (2016). Former Tepco execs indicted for failing to anticipate, prevent meltdowns. February 29.

  • Japan Times (2017). JR West derailment case has victims calling for legal reforms. June 14.

  • Johnson, D. T. (2000). Why the wicked sleep: the prosecution of political corruption in postwar Japan. Asian Perspective., 24(4), 59–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. T. (2002). The Japanese way of justice: prosecuting crime in Japan. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D.T. (2012). Japan’s prosecution system. In Prosecutors and politics: a comparative perspective, Volume 41 of Crime & Justice: A Review of Research, edited by Michael Tonry. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, pp.35–74.

  • Johnson, D.T. (2015). Wrongful convictions and the culture of denial in Japanese criminal justice. The Asia-Pacific Journal. Vol.13, Issue 6, No.3 (February 9): 1–10.

  • Johnson, D. T. (2016). Japan’s lay judge system. In J. Ross & S. Thaman (Eds.), Handbook on comparative criminal procedure (pp. 396–421). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kage, R. (2017). Who judges? Designing jury systems in Japan, East Asia, and Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kaido, Y. (2016). Tokyo Dai-go Kensatsu Shinsakai no ‘Kyosei Kiso’ Giketsu no Igi: Fukushima Genpatsu Jiko no Genin - Sekinin to Genpatsu Saikado. Kyojo Hogaku, 10, 13–26.

  • Kaido, Y. (2018) (forthcoming). Toden Keiji Saiban de Akiraka ni Natta Koto: Yomi-Kaihi Kano Datta Genpatsu Jiko wa Naze Okita ka. Tokyo: Sairyusha.

  • Kawasaki, H. (2016). Kyosei Kiso Seido no Kaikaku Kadai to Kensatsu Shinsakai Seido. Jiyu to Seigi., 67(12), 43–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langer, M., & Sklansky, D. A. (2017a). Prosecutors and democracy: a cross-national study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Langer, M., & Sklansky, D. A. (2017b). Epilogue: prosecutors and democracy—themes and counterthemes. In M. Langer & D. A. Sklansky (Eds.), Prosecutors and democracy: a cross-national study (pp. 300–338). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Machida, T. (2015) Toden moto Kanbura o Kyosei Kiso! Kono Kuni no Mirai no Tame ni, Kensatsu ga Mesu o Ireru beki Mittsu no ‘Tabu’. August 4. http://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/44512. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Mainichi Shimbun (2012). Okinawa - Mikokaikabu Sagi: Kyosei Kiso Muzai Shitei Bengoshi ga Koso Kento Hikokugawa wa ‘Manzoku’ - Naha Chisai Hanketsu. March 15, p.24.

  • Mainichi Shimbun (2013). Higashi Nihon Daishinsai: Fukushima Dai-ichi Genpatsu Jiko zen42nin Fukiso Kan moto-Shusho ‘Yogi Nashi’–Tokyo Chiken. September 10, p.27 (Osaka morning edition).

  • Matsumiya, T. (2016). Saishin Hanrei Kyoshitsu Keiho Kashitsu Han no Kyodo Seihan: Akashi Hodo Kyo-Jiko Kyosei Kiso Jiken Jokokushin Kettei [Saikosai Daisansho Hotei H 28. 7. 12 Kettei]. Hogaku. Semina, 61(12), 123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, R. H. (1992). Janus-faced justice: political criminals in imperial Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mori, Y. (2012). Kensatsu no Wana: Ozawa Ichiro Massatsu Keikaku no Shinso. Tokyo: Nihon Bungeisha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muto, R., & Kaido, Y. (2014). Fukushima Gempatsu Kokusodan Kyosei Sosahen, (February 5, 8-minute video) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=RKV5mMbHFIo. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Kyodo News. (2013). News summary [on the Tokushima town mayor assault case]. February 8. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Kyodo+news+summary+-7-.-a0318289026. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • NHK News. (2018). “Toden Keiji Saiban” [詳報 東電刑事裁判「原発事故の詳細は」], at https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/toudensaiban. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Noble, J. (2016). Japan indicts 3 former executives over Fukushima nuclear disaster. New York Times. February 29.

  • Nomura, J. (1988). Nihon no Kensatsu: Saiko no Kenryoku no Uchigawa. Tokyo: Kodansha.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonet, P., & Selznick, P. (1978). Law and society in transition: toward responsive law. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Packer, H. L. (1968). The limits of the criminal sanction. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry, R. L. (2017). Ghosts of the tsunami: death and life in Japan’s disaster zone. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramseyer, J. M. (2011). Why power companies build nuclear reactors on fault lines: the case of Japan. Theoretical Inquiries in Law., 13(2 (June), 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramseyer, J. M., & Rasmusen, E. B. (2001). Why is the Japanese conviction rate so high? Journal of Legal Studies, 30(January), 53–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sankei Shimbun (2015). Toden Genpatsu Jiko Kyosei Kiso ni wa Gimon Nokoru. August 1. http://www.sankei.com/column/news/150801/clm1508010002-n2.html. Accessed 30 Sept 2018.

  • Sankei Shimbun Tokushubu (2000). Kensatsu no Hiro. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.

  • Schell-Busey, N., Simpson, S. S., Rorie, M., & Alper, M. (2016). What works? A systematic review of corporate crime deterrence. Criminology & Public Policy., 15(2 (May), 387–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger, J. M. (1997). Shadow shoguns: the rise and fall of Japan’s postwar political machine. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shukan Kinyobi (2013). Fukushima Genpatsu Kokusodan, Kensatsu no Shisei Tou: Kensatsu Shinsakai ni Igi Moshitate. December 11. http://www.kinyobi.co.jp/kinyobinews/2013/12/11/福島原発告訴団、検察の姿勢問う――検察審査会/. Accessed 30 Sept 2018.

  • Sklansky, D. A. (2016). The nature and function of prosecutorial power. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 106(3), 473–520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklansky, D. A. (2017). Unpacking the relationship between prosecutors and democracy in the United States. In M. Langer & D. A. Sklansky (Eds.), Prosecutors and democracy: a cross-national study (pp. 276–299). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklansky, D. A. (2018). The problems with prosecutors. Annual Review of Criminology, 1, 451–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takeda, M. (2014). Saibanin Seido Kaishi kara 5nen: Kensatsu wa Taisho Jiken o Shincho ni Kiso: Saibanin Kohosha no Jitairitsu, 60% Koeru. Journalism, 2014, 136–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uchida, R. (2014). Judo Jiko - Kyosei Kiso no Keijisaiban de Kakkiteki na Yuzai Hanketsu. Yahoo News, April 30. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/ryouchida/20140430-00034914/. Accesssed Sept 30 2018.

  • Vanoverbeke, D. (2015). Juries in the Japanese legal system: the continuing struggle for citizen participation and democracy. London and New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, S. (1993). Taming the system: the control of discretion in criminal justice, 1950–1990. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wan, W. (2010). Boat collision sparks anger, breakdown in China-Japan talks. Washington Post September 20.

  • West, M. D. (1992). Prosecution review commissions: Japan’s answer to the problem of prosecutorial discretion. Columbia Law Review, 92(3 (April), 684–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. J., Fukurai, H., & Maruta, T. (2015). Japan and civil jury trials: the convergence of forces. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, R. F., & Miller, M. L. (2010). The worldwide accountability deficit for prosecutors. Washington & Lee Law Review, 67(4), 1587–1620.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamashita, Y., & Jin, H. (2016). Kensatsu Shinsakai Seido Kaikakugo no Unyo Jokyo to Bengoshi ga Hatasu Beki Yakuwari. Jiyu to Seigi., 67(12), 35–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamazaki, S. (2018). Kotsu Jiko Jiken Sosa. Sosa Kenkyu, 806(February 5), 81–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yomiuri Shimbun (2015). Kaisetsu Special: Kashitsu Sekinin Muzukashii Rissho. August 1, p.11.

  • Zimring, F. E., Hawkins, G., & Kamin, S. (2001). Punishment and democracy: three strikes and you’re out in California. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We express special thanks to Professor Setsuo Miyazawa, who has long provided guidance to both authors of this article.

Funding

This article was supported by a generous grant from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Japanese Studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David T. Johnson.

Ethics declarations

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interests

There is no conflict of interest related to this article.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Johnson, D.T., Hirayama, M. Japan’s Reformed Prosecution Review Commission: Changes, Challenges, and Lessons. Asian J Criminol 14, 77–102 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-018-9280-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-018-9280-2

Keywords

Navigation