The number of bodies inspected by the police has been rising year by year, but in 2010, autopsies were conducted on only about 11 percent of them. On July 26, Cabinet ministers concerned decided to start a working team to study how to raise the autopsy rate to 20 percent in five years. The team will be composed of officials from various government bodies including the National Police Agency, the health and welfare ministry and the education and science ministry.
Since 1988, there have been at least 43 cases in which the police initially determined that the deaths were not crime-related but, after further investigation, decided that crimes had been committed.
In 2010, about 171,000 bodies were inspected by the police. The police suspected that crimes led to 8,000 of the deaths, and judicial autopsies were conducted on the bodies. Administrative autopsies were conducted on another 11,000 bodies to determine the causes of death even though crimes were not suspected.