Following Tuesday's proposals by the Judicial Reform Council, which came after two years of strenuous deliberations, attention has shifted to how the government will introduce the sweeping changes in cooperation with judicial parties.
In improving legal services and systems, the Judicial Reform Council seeks to:
* Halve the duration of civil court hearings.
* Consider ways for nonjudicial professionals to participate in trials involving technical knowledge, in order to provide judges with assistance.
* Establish patent courts under the auspices of the Tokyo and Osaka District courts to focus on trials involving intellectual property.
* Introduce arbitration for labor disputes.
* Lower the fees involved in filing suits.
* Ease the upper limit on damages that can be claimed in summary courts.
* Introduce the "English rule," whereby unsuccessful parties in lawsuits shoulder lawyers' fees for both parties.
* Consider a new law on alternative dispute resolution to facilitate out-of-court settlements.
* Consider whether to establish a new law to effectively carry out administrative litigation.
* Speed up criminal trials by enabling courts to establish the point of a dispute earlier and concentrate on the same cases every day.
* Provide publicly hired attorneys for suspects before they are prosecuted.
* Empower Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution decisions in bringing prosecution.
* Mandate investigators to keep a written record of interrogations to ensure that interrogations are conducted appropriately.