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Japan The Judicial System
In contrast to the prewar system, in which executive
bodies had
much control over the courts, the postwar constitution
guarantees
that "all judges shall be independent in the exercise of
their
conscience and shall be bound only by this constitution
and the
Laws" (Article 76). They cannot be removed from the bench
"unless
judicially declared mentally or physically incompetent to
perform
official duties," and they cannot be disciplined by
executive
agencies (Article 78). A Supreme Court justice, however,
may be
removed by a majority of voters in a referendum that
occurs at the
first general election following the justice's appointment
and
every ten years thereafter. As of the early 1990s,
however, the
electorate had not used this unusual system to dismiss a
justice.
The Supreme Court, the highest court, is the final
court of
appeal in civil and criminal cases. The constitution's
Article 81
designates it "the court of last resort with power to
determine the
constitutionality of any law, order, regulation, or
official act."
The Supreme Court is also responsible for nominating
judges to
lower courts, determining judicial procedures, overseeing
the
judicial system, including the activities of public
prosecutors,
and disciplining judges and other judicial personnel. It
renders
decisions from either a grand bench of fifteen justices or
a petit
bench of five. The grand bench is required for cases
involving
constitutionality. The court includes twenty research
clerks, whose
function is similar to that of the clerks of the United
States
Supreme Court.
The judicial system is unitary: there is no independent
system
of prefectural level courts equivalent to the state courts
of the
United States. Below the Supreme Court, the Japanese
system
included eight high courts, fifty district courts, and
fifty family
courts in the late 1980s. Four of each of the last two
types of
courts were located in Hokkaido, and one of each in the
remaining
forty-six rural prefectures, urban prefectures, and the
Tokyo
Metropolitan District. Summary courts, located in 575
cities and
towns in the late 1980s, performed the functions of small
courts
and justices of the peace in the United States, having
jurisdiction
over minor offenses and civil cases.
Data as of January 1994
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