2003 JAPAN LAW: INSANITY CASES
Keywords: Insanity, Criminal Law, Code of Civil Procedure
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman
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Japan has enacted a new law for the hospitalization of mentally disturbed people who have committed serious crimes or where cases are dismissed or sentences commuted due to deficient mental capacity. After consideration has been given by a panel of judges and psychiatrists the court will be empowered to decide whether such defendants should be hospitalized or simply required to make regular hospital visits. Where hospitalized is required the defendants will be sent to special units at public hospitals meeting standards established by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The hospitals will make status reports every six months and the panel will decide whether to continue hospitalization, or discharge the defendant If the panel orders discharge from the hospital the defendant patient will be required for a period of three years thereafter to continue to report to a similar hospital unit for regular checks by the doctors. Thereafter the court is still empowered to decide how to continue.

In December 2003 the Tokyo High Court said it would order psychiatric tests on the 87 year old former vice president of Teikyo University who was being tried on charges of using HIV infected coagulants blamed for the death of a hemophiliac. Although the lower court found the defendant innocent of the charge, the prosecutors appealed. The Criminal Procedure Law calls for the suspension of cases when the defendant may not be in a sound state of mind.