Sunday 20th June, 06:53 AM JST
TOKYO —
The Justice Ministry thinks it ‘‘unrealistic’’ to require
investigators to fully audio- and videotape the questioning of all
criminal suspects, ministry officials said in an interim report.
The ministry’s study group instead reached a tentative decision
that selected criminal cases should be subject to full recording,
the officials said.
Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, Senior Vice Minister of Justice
Koichi Kato and Parliamentary Secretary of Justice Tetsuji Nakamura
were among the study group members.
Chiba told a news conference on Friday that her ministry ‘‘will
conduct realistic studies’’ on the matter, and that she will
consult with state minister Hiroshi Nakai with the aim of making a
final decision soon after June 2011.
Nakai, who supervises the country’s police forces as chairman of
the National Commission on Public Safety, has also formed a similar
study group with the Justice Ministry on recording suspects’
questioning.
The Justice Ministry’s interim report noted that the number of
criminal cases handled by prosecutors across the country totals
about 2 million a year and that suspects are questioned at various
places, not only at prosecutors’ offices.
If full recording of questioning is required, lawyers and judges
would have to watch the tapes for a long time, it said.
In Japan, there have been mounting calls for recording
investigators’ questioning of suspects amid an increasing number of
wrongful convictions in criminal cases.
Last year, Toshikazu Sugaya, 63, who was found guilty of killing a
girl in 1990, was cleared of criminal charges in a retrial after
serving more than 17 years in prison.
A parliamentarians group of the governing Democratic Party of Japan
and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations call for full
recording of questioning.