Photo/Illutration The Asahi Shimbun

Prosecutors and other legal authorities are seeking to limit disclosure of the names of juvenile offenders to criminal cases that are considered heinous and involve a death or injury caused by a deliberate action, sources said.

The revised Juvenile Law will take effect in April, when the age of adulthood in Japan is lowered from 20 to 18. Under the revisions, people 18 and 19 years old are considered “specified juveniles,” and their real names can be used in reporting if they are charged with crimes (not including summary indictments).

However, many lawmakers last year voiced concerns that revealing the identities of young offenders could hamper their rehabilitation.

The Judicial Affairs Committees of both Diet chambers added a resolution to the revised law, which says “full consideration” will be given by the central government and the Supreme Court to “ensure that publicizing cases under the (revised law) does not get in the way of the sound upbringing and rehabilitation of juveniles.”

It will be up to each court to decide how to list the trials in session for each day and if the names of juvenile defendants are read out in court. News organizations will also decide if they want to publicize the real names.

A Supreme Court source said the release of the names will ultimately be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but a planned guideline should give courts and media companies a better idea on when disclosure is acceptable.

“The ways prosecutors use (the guideline) as a reference will provide food for thought and discussions in each court case,” the source said.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office will soon make a final decision on a basic guideline and send it to district and high public prosecutors offices around the nation, sources said.

It will say the names of 18- and 19-year-olds can be released in criminal cases tried by citizen judges because such crimes are serious and highly public.

The lay-judge system is mainly reserved for serious cases that carry possible death sentences or life imprisonment. These crimes generally involve a death or injury caused by a deliberate act, such as murder, inflicting injury resulting in death, robbery resulting in bodily injury, and rape resulting in bodily injury.

According to the proposed guideline, names can also be released in cases that are not necessarily tried under the citizen-judge system.

Juvenile suspects can be sent back to prosecutors by family courts when the charges carry possible death sentences and life sentences.

Under the revised law, these cases will also be remanded in addition to the existing category of “a charge involving death caused by a deliberate act.”

In these cases, the names of the suspects can be released if they are charged, according to the planned guideline.

Arson in an inhabited structure, robbery, rape, organized fraud and other charges have been exempt from the cases for remand. These charges carry a minimum penalty of one year in prison and will also be sent back to prosecutors under the revised law.

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