Japan's Ministry of Justice prepared a revised amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code that establishes a principle prohibition on prosecutor appeals [1].
The move seeks to tighten the re-trial system by preventing prosecutors from appealing decisions to restart trials. The government said these appeals are unnecessary and can lengthen legal proceedings [4].
The amendment moves the prohibition into the main provisions of the law, shifting it from the supplementary provisions, and adding a limited-exception clause [1]. The draft is scheduled to be presented at a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) law committee meeting in Tokyo on May 15, 2024 [2]. Following this committee review, the amendment will be submitted to the Diet [1].
There are conflicting reports regarding the specific contents of the draft. While reports from Yahoo! Japan, Asahi, and TBS state the prohibition is embedded in the main provisions, a report from MSN indicated the government did not include such a prohibition in the version presented to the LDP [1].
This legislative effort follows previous discussions on the matter, including a party committee meeting held on July 7, 2024 [3]. To ensure the system remains current, the government plans to revisit the re-trial system review every five years [5].
“The government said these appeals are unnecessary and can lengthen legal proceedings.”
This amendment represents a significant shift in the balance of power between the state and the defense in Japanese criminal law. By limiting the ability of prosecutors to challenge a court's decision to grant a retrial, the government is prioritizing the speed and finality of the re-trial process over the prosecutorial right to appeal. This change could potentially accelerate the exoneration of wrongfully convicted individuals by removing a primary legal hurdle used by the state to maintain convictions.
