Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Saturday that his government will begin studying possible revisions to the law regarding crimes by mentally ill people following Friday's massacre of eight children by a man with a history of psychiatric illness.
"There are issues that must be dealt with both from the point of view of medical treatment and the Penal Code," Koizumi told an NHK TV program to be aired today.
"We must correct what is insufficient," he said. The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party "will deal with this problem in a serious manner starting Monday."