2003 JAPAN LAW: JUVENILE CRIME
Keywords: Juvenile Law, Criminal Law, Penal Code, Rape, Murder, Family Court
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman
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Under a 2001 amendment to the Juvenile Law the minimum age at which a defendant can face criminal trial was reduced from 16 to 14 years of age. A fifteen year old who raped and robbed a woman in 2002 became the first such young person to be sentenced under the revised law. The young man, now 16 years old was sentenced by the Fukushima Family Court to 3.5-6 years in prison while his 17 year old accomplice was sentenced to 4-7 years. Although not falling under the revised law, the Osaka High Court upheld a lower court decision to sentence a young man for murdering a taxi driver when he was 16 years old. The court rejected his insanity defense and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. In Osaka a 19 year old is being prosecuted for murdering his mother and attempting to murder his father and brother. His 16 year old girl friend was also arrested with a knife on suspicion of thinking murdering her family.

The government also looks likely to lower the age for putting minors in reformatories from the present 14 years of age in response to the increasing rise in juvenile crime. The government is also seeking to empower the police to conduct their investigations of such juveniles in the same way as they do for adults. The Penal Code states that children under 14 years of age can not be held criminally liable. Cases under that age must be handled by the Family Court. Government statistics reveal that in 2002 twelve year old children were taken into custody in 3,530 cases and thirteen year olds in 20,477 cases