The Judicial Reform Council on Tuesday submitted its final report to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, calling for an overhaul of the nation's legal system — the first of its kind under the postwar Constitution — to get in step with an era of rapid socioeconomic changes.
The massive set of proposals urges the nation to increase the number of legal professionals from the current 20,000 to 50,000 by 2018, launch U.S.-style law schools in 2004 and introduce a quasi-jury system in certain criminal trials.
The council said it expects the judiciary to play a greater role in helping people solve various legal conflicts expected to arise in a freer society stemming from ongoing structural reforms that are increasingly removing administrative regulations.