Preparations under way in Japan for plea-bargaining system

May 4, 2018

Tokyo- Public prosecutors and private companies in Japan are making preparations for the introduction on June 1 of a plea-bargaining system in the country that may drastically change the way investigations, trials and lawyer activities are conducted.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office established a special division in June 2016 after the Diet, the country's parliament, passed criminal justice system reform legislation featuring the introduction of the plea-bargaining system the previous month.

In guidelines released last March, the prosecutors' office said that the plea-bargaining system should only be applied in cases that can gain public understanding.

Under the Japanese plea-bargaining system, suspects and defendants will be rewarded with leniency if they cooperate to help resolve other people's crimes.

The system can be applied to such criminal cases as the smuggling of drugs and guns and economic crimes.

But a senior public prosecutor says, "There is a big hurdle in utilizing the plea-bargaining system in smuggling cases."

"Traffickers are thorough about destroying evidence, and it's difficult simply to trust their testimony," the official says.

The prosecutors' office assumes that the first plea-bargaining case in the country will involve an economic crime, such as bribery, embezzlement or accounting fraud.

Lawyers who often represent corporate clients have been making efforts to help them be aware of the new system.

Lawyer Akihide Kumada, a former public prosecutor, held two workshops about the plea-bargaining system last January for corporate employees in charge of legal affairs, attracting some 60 participants in total.

"Plea bargaining is a system targeting corporate managers," Kumada said at one of the seminars.

A company may use the system in its own interest in some cases and in others, a company may be charged after a rival uses it, Kumada said.

"If misconduct occurs, a company should investigate it promptly and take countermeasures," he stressed.

Among workshop participants, a worker in his 50s who is responsible for auditing at a major machinery maker said that the company needs to discuss its policy on the plea-bargaining system as it has yet to consider a response. Jiji Press