A group of people whose children died at the hands of juveniles submitted a written request Thursday to Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka, urging the state to improve the rights of crime victims and their relatives under the Juvenile Law.

At a half-hour meeting with Yasuoka at the ministry, 10 representatives of the national society of juvenile crime victims asked the government to review the law, because its spirit favors the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders at the expense of the victims' human rights.

As their main demand, the parents want family courts to submit the cases of all juvenile offenders involved in fatal crimes to prosecutors for a standard trial, regardless of their age.