The key to successfully overhauling the nation's legal system lies in the extent to which the nation's top judicial circles can work with each other toward that goal, according to former Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka.

Yasuoka, a House of Representatives lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party, served as justice minister from April to December 2000 under then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. He is chairman of the LDP Judicial Commission as well as head of a nonpartisan Diet group promoting judicial reforms.

"The biggest point in the direction of judicial reform today is that the bar associations have changed their position over the past few years and are now cooperating in the planning of judicial reforms," the lawmaker said in a recent interview.