Photo/Illutration Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responds to a question at his May 19 news conference. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on May 19 indicated that a perceived ally of the government remains on track for the top prosecutor’s post despite a postponement in legislation related to the retirement age.

The government on May 18 shelved the bill after widespread public opposition and criticism that Diet passage was intended to allow Hiromu Kurokawa to take over the post of prosecutor-general.

But at his daily news conference on May 19, Suga said the shelving of the bill would have “absolutely no effect” on the career of Kurokawa, now the chief of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office.

The Cabinet in January changed the long-held interpretation of the National Public Service Law to extend the retirement age of top prosecutors. That allowed Kurokawa, considered a political ally of the Abe administration, to extend his service by six months beyond his 63rd birthday.

The current prosecutor-general, Nobuo Inada, will turn 65 in August 2021. Although prosecutors-general can serve until their 65th birthday, the common practice has been for them to step down after two years.

That would mean Inada would retire in July, allowing Kurokawa to take over.

No public notification was made of the change in interpretation related to Kurokawa’s retirement age.

“We did not feel there was a need to notify the public about changes in the personnel system for prosecutors,” Suga said. “While such a notification would be made when the need arose on grounds the daily lives of the people would be affected, no general guideline about such a need can be given.”

He also said it was up to the Diet to decide if the package of bills that has been abandoned for now should be separated into their respective parts.

The opposition criticized the government for including the retirement-age legislation into a package of bills that was being deliberated as a whole.

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