The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office on Dec. 24 made public a report of an internal probe of how the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad handled the case in which a former welfare ministry bureau chief allegedly fabricated an official document to help an organization receive a postage discount perk reserved for the disabled. The report doesn't go far enough.
This case greatly damaged people's trust in public prosecutors, in general, because of the disclosure that the chief investigator had tampered with an important piece of evidence. The report, submitted to a third-party panel at the Justice Ministry, says investigators made light of evidence that contradicted the prosecution's scenario of the alleged crime. The probe also found that the prosecution used leading questions and other means to prepare depositions and then wrongly arrested and indicted the bureaucrat, Ms. Atsuko Muraki.
It is widely known that similar problems have happened during the investigation of other cases. The report appears to come up short, though, in stressing that prosecutors offices as a whole have structural problems. All prosecutors should view the report as a warning that they use their power correctly by strictly following the basic principles of investigation.