Article 61 of the Juvenile Law prohibits the dissemination of information that identifies a minor in a family court decision. The aim is to spare the minor publicity that might hinder his or her rehabilitation.
Recently, 4,000 copies of a book hit the market that tell the story of a 28-year-old man who has appealed his death sentence for the 1999 murder of a 23-year-old woman and her 11-month-old baby daughter in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture. As the book identifies the man, who was an 18-year-old minor when the murders were committed, his lawyers have filed for a provisional court injunction with Hiroshima District Court to halt the book's publication. The book questions the death sentence handed down by Hiroshima High Court in April 2008.
The author, Ms. Michiko Masuda, says she interviewed the man 25 times beginning in August 2008, and that he gave her permission to disclose his name in the book when she expressed her wish to do so. She disclosed his name because she believes that its omission from mass media reports had prevented the public from understanding him as a person and had contributed to fostering a monstrous image in the minds of many people, thus generating public sentiment in favor of his receiving the death sentence. The lawyers say that Ms. Masuda broke a promise to show the manuscript to the man before publication, causing him to feel that a trustful relationship was broken.