LEGAL WIRETAPPING
KEYWORDS: WIRETAPPING, BUGGING, CRIMINAL LAW

Legal wiretapping by the Japanese police, particularly on drug crimes is still being utilized. The Tokyo High Court upheld the conviction of a drug dealer member of a Japanese yakuza crime group even though defense counsel challenged the legality of the wiretapping, a relatively new legal tool in Japan. The Tokyo High Court specifically upheld the legality of the wiretapping even though the wiretapping law itself only permits it “only if no other method of determining criminal activity is available.”

About the new law and drug dealing the presiding judge of the Tokyo High Court held:

“There is a need to find out everything about drug smuggling that is going on and there were limits were limits to how well it could be investigated before the law came into place. The new law is appropriate.”

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman

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