Japan Top Court Reports on Trial Records Discarding Scandal

   Tokyo, May 25 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court on Thursday released a report on a scandal in which trial records including those of the 1997 serial attacks on children in Kobe, western Japan, had been discarded.
   According to the report, trial records for most of some 90 cases investigated were systematically discarded without consideration for designating them for permanent preservation.
   The Supreme Court admitted its failure to give sufficient instructions about record preservation to courts across the country, and concluded that the scandal resulted from its inadequate response.
   "We are deeply sorry for the loss of many records that should have been handed down to future generations, and we apologize to the people including those related to the affected cases," Shinya Onodera, director of the top court's general affairs bureau, told a press conference the same day.
   The top court decided to position trial records as "the common property of the people" and to clarify in its internal rules the significance of preserving records of trials that have attracted national attention or led to important constitutional judgments.

(2023/05/25-19:39)

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