Unlike Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administrative and economic reform initiatives, which have seen slow going, his efforts to overhaul the judiciary have made steady progress.

The first drastic judicial reforms under the Constitution have three major pillars -- a dramatic increase in the number of legal professionals, speedier trials and introduction of a quasi-jury system for criminal trials.

The Koizumi government inherited the judicial reform initiative from the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's Cabinet, which set up the Justice System Reform Council in the Cabinet Office in July 1999.