With all the attention now being focused by the government, police and judicial authorities, educators and the media on Japan's rapidly increasing juvenile crime rate and the escalating level of violence frequently involved, the rights of the victims of crimes in this country have often seemed of secondary concern. Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura indicated this week that this is about to change. A new system is to be put into effect from April to see that crime victims, along with their family members, their attorneys and possible witnesses to the crime, are kept informed of proceedings in their cases.

The director general of the ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau has reportedly already issued instructions to public prosecutors' offices nationwide to implement the system from the coming fiscal year. Mr. Nakamura says the change is intended to improve the public's understanding of judicial processes. That, of course, is the ostensible reason, and in itself it reflects a refreshing change in the official attitude. In fact, however, to many observers it can only seem that the Justice Ministry is reacting at last to the criticism long voiced in many circles here that the authorities often seem more concerned with the rights of criminal suspects than with those of their victims.

That suspicion is strengthened by indications from the ministry itself that the new official guidelines are based on advanced systems already in use in some other industrialized countries. Of course, it is one thing to issue instructions to the offices of the nation's 58 high public and district public prosecutors and something else entirely to ensure that they are followed. One certain sign of the need for continued public vigilance is the comment by a Justice Ministry official that 43 of the 58 prosecutors' offices already "adequately" inform crime victims and their families of developments in their cases.