Legal System in Japan

Legal system in Japan

- by Yogendra Puranik ‘Yogi’ on January 14, 2020

The whole legal system process in Japan is very cumbersome. So, the first important thing is to live a life within the boundaries of the legal system. However, not all things in our lives are in our control. You may crash your car even being a good driver, you may hit someone with your bicycle, and the opposite party might sue you, you could be wrongly charged for molestation in a train, you could have a small matter in the family, and it could turn out into a court affair. Hence, it is better to know some basics of the court system and the hardships behind it.

Moreover, it is very important to take community help when you hit something and try to solve the matters in the initial levels, be it an issue between a husband and a wife, or an issue with the neighbor, and so on. I have not trusted the lawyers so much. Ultimately, they must take care of their livelihood. So, before going to a lawyer, try to sort out the things with the concerned, if required, with the help of a community intermediary.

The legal system in Japan includes the constitution, the supreme court, higher and lower courts, justices, judges, court officials, public prosecutors, attorneys, the judicial process, and citizen participation in the judicial process. The judicial procedures are carried out separately for the civil, criminal, and family matters.

The Police

The police do not indulge in civil matters. Police come into action in criminal matters, and family matters like domestic violence or child abuse, etc., which could involve a criminal component. So, unless there is a crime or a potential for a crime, police will usually not move. When the police take someone in custody, they must report the case to the Public Prosecutor's Office within 48-hours to continue the police custody.

The Prosecutor

The Public Prosecutors' Office is one that stands between the Police and the court. The Police investigate a crime, take the concerned in their custody, if necessary, and then present the case to the Public Prosecutor. The Public Prosecutor then decides whether to continue the police custody for the initial investigation. The first police custody is of 10 days, which could be further extended by 10 days, to investigate and decide whether to present the case to the court or finish it at the prosecutor’s level.  If the case is not taken to court, then the Prosecutor may just give a warning or a financial punishment.

When you are taken into custody by the police, you have the right to keep mum. You won’t be tortured as such. You will be served food and offered clothing. You also have a right to a free Public Defender (kokusen bengonin). Rather, you will be provided with one by default within 24 to 48 hours. The services of a public defender will be free only if your monthly income and cash savings are less than 500,000 yen. They might check your pay slip or bank balance.

The public defender will bring a free official translator if you cannot speak Japanese. State your facts correctly so that things are not used against you. I haven't met many professional and strong public defenders. Most of them are novices. You must give the contact details of your family and/or friends to the public defender and ask the public defender to contact them.

Your phone will be taken away by the Police immediately after you are taken into custody. Hence, you will have to keep note of at least one phone number or address at which the public defender can reach your family/friends. The police are not allowed to divulge any information to people other than your family. And they respond only to inquiries in Japanese.

The Indictment

The prosecutor cannot decide on imprisonment or custody beyond 23 (3+10+10) days. Beyond 23 days, your case is indicted, after which the court decides on the judicial custody or bail. For that, the prosecutor must submit the case to the court for a judgment by the Judge or a panel of judges. Also, the prosecutor can only decide on the criminal part of the case. Even if the Prosecutor ends the case at his level, the concerned parties can still fight the civil part of the case in court.

The court

The court has multiple levels in the order of the Summary Court (kan’i saibansho), the District Court (chihou saibansho), the High Court (koutou saibansho), the Supreme Court (saikou saibansho), then followed by the Minister of Justice (houmu daijin) and the Prime Minister (souri daijin). If you wish to file a case, you may first approach the Summary court, which further decides whether it can admit the case, reject the case, or send it to a higher court.

You can file a case by yourself or with the help of a lawyer. Lawyers are usually specialized in their own fields, like civil cases, criminal cases, and family cases, and then international cases. Lawyers are expensive. For a simple civil case, their initial payment would start from 150,000 Japanese yen, for a criminal case from 300,000 to 400,000 yen, and for a family case around 700,000 yen, and then a percentage of the settlement.

Legal consultation

Free legal consultations (hou-terasu) are available in every city, usually one day a week. You must take a prior appointment. However, these are just cosmetic consultations without much depth. You may just expect to get a generic direction and nothing specific to your case. The lawyers here then try to make a case for themselves to earn. Free legal consultations are also available in the Lawyers' Hall (Bengoshi Kaikan), etc. However, here also the case is the same. If you find a private lawyer and consult, you may need to pay 5,000 to 10,000 Japanese yen an hour for the consultation fees.

Filing a case by yourself is not expensive. You can do it for a few thousand yen. You must write the petition as per the format/s given on the court website and submit five copies to the court. The fee calculator is available on the internet. You must buy the necessary revenue stamps (shunu-inshi) and postal stamps (kitte) and include them in your petition envelope. Submission can be in-person or by post. In case of postal submission, it is better that you first call the court and get some guidance. You can visit the court for in-person guidance.

The petition can be supported with separate documents for evidence, witnesses, and oaths. Putting everything on paper helps. However, make your points crisp and clear as the judges do not wish to waste their time. Once you submit the first petition, the court decides a date and sends a summons to both parties. The parties are allowed to skip one date; however not recommended. Later dates will be decided in consultation with the parties.

Usually, courts are peaceful. There is no shouting or disrespecting of each other. If you have to say something, you may request the judge and, upon his/her signal, go ahead. You are allowed to speak only in Japanese. If you do not speak Japanese, official interpreters are available. You must apply for an interpreter who is officially registered in the system. Based on your financial status, these interpreters could be free or paid (8000 yen an hour). I was allowed to interpret in a couple of cases when we told the judge that the party involved was not capable of paying for the lawyer and that I was in the best awareness of the facts of the case. Such a person who supports inside the court is called Hosanin, and the procedure to apply for this support is called Hosanin-shinsei.

Courts could be biased

Courts could be biased. When the case is going against a Japanese national, I have experienced that the court will try its best for a settlement. For settlement, the judge appoints one or more negotiators who talk to both parties for a settlement. You may not agree if you do not like the conditions of settlement. And when the case is going against a foreigner, the court will go for a forced settlement. This has been commonly seen in the case of divorce cases and custody of the kids.

Lawyers will always try to tell you that the judge is a god and you must strictly obey to them to avoid repercussions. However, I personally do not take it that way. A judge is there to make a decision based on facts. Hence, if there is any fact that the judge must know, you must speak.

The judge could be singular or a panel of judges. For small values, simple cases, usually it’s a singular judge supported by negotiators as required. The panel of judges may include civilian participants who are selected randomly.

Consumer support

Consumers affairs centers (shouhisha Soudan senta-) that are governed by the Consumer Affairs Bureau (shouhisha-cho), are available in every city. In case you have a product or service-related issue, you may reach out to these centers by telephone. The centers then listen to both sides, check the legal rightness, and if needed, have the power to talk to the service providers to reconsider their service or replace the products. Consumer affairs centers do not need heavy documentation or petition submission. These are easy to access. However, they could be lethargic in taking the case, and you might need to give them a push. These centers entertain individual cases only. Corporate cases must go to court.

There is also a wing of the legal system in immigration matters. There are separate courts within the immigration bureau, and the lawyers here specialize in immigration-related cases. Unlike a normal court, there is a complaint of opaqueness, heavy bias, and slowness in the proceedings of these courts, and hence, many foreigners spend a long time without being sentenced in the immigration detention centers. Life in these detention centers is said to be of questionable quality.

More information can be found at the following link.

www.courts.go.jp/english/judicial_sys/index.html

All the best 

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