The Tokyo District Court on Thursday sentenced a former Meiji University law school professor to a year in prison, suspended for five years, for leaking this year's bar exam questions to a female graduate under his tutelage who he used to date.

Prosecutors sought one year in prison for Koichi Aoyagi, 67, who was charged with violating the confidentiality provision of the national civil service law.

"It is obvious that public confidence in the fairness of the bar exam has been profoundly hurt and the social impact cannot be overlooked," Judge Koichi Nozawa said in handing down the ruling.