Supreme Court of Japan
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The Supreme Court of Japan (最高裁判所 Saikō-Saibansho; called 最高裁 Saikō-Sai for short), located in Chiyoda, Tokyo is the highest court in Japan. It has ultimate judicial authority within Japan to interpret the Constitution and decide questions of national law (including local bylaws). It has the power of judicial review (i.e., it can declare Acts of Diet and Local Assembly, and administrative actions, unconstitutional).
History
The first Western-style supreme court in Japan was the Supreme Court of Judicature (大審院 Dai-shin'in) organized by the Ministry of Justice in 1875. This court was composed of 120 judges in both civil and criminal divisions. Five judges would be empaneled for any given case. The criminal division of the court was the court of first instance for crimes against the Emperor (e.g. lèse majesté) and for high crimes against public order.
The statute creating the Court was abolished in 1947, and the modern Supreme Court was formed that year under the constitution of 1946. The new court was first convened in May 1947 in the former Privy Council quarters of the Imperial Palace. It moved to the Tokyo District Court building in September, then assumed the former quarters of the Supreme Court of Judicature in October of 1949.
In 1974, the Supreme Court moved to its current five-story building at 4-2 Hayabusa-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The building was designed by architect Shinichi Okada and won the Architecture Institute of Japan Prize for Design.
Organization of the Court
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 Chief judge is chosen by the cabinet (the Prime Minister) and appointed by the Emperor.
The associate judges are designated by the cabinet.
Judicial review
The Supreme Court is the only Japanese court explicitly empowered to review the constitutionality of laws, although it has held that lower courts also have power to interpret the constitution. [1] Unlike constitutional courts in civil law countries, it only exercises judicial review in cases where there is a genuine dispute between parties, and does not accept questions of constitutionality from government officials. [2]
The Supreme Court is generally reluctant to exercise the powers of judicial review given to it by the constitution, in large part because of unwillingness to become involved in politically sensitive issues. When decisions have been rendered on such matters as the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces, the sponsorship of Shinto ceremonies by public authorities, or the authority of the Ministry of Education to determine the content of school textbooks or teaching curricula, the Court has generally deferred to the government.[3] In the words of political scientist T.J. Pempel, the Supreme Court "has been an important, if frequently unrecognized, vehicle for preserving the status quo in Japan and for reducing the capacity of the courts to reverse executive actions."[citation needed]
One important exception to this trend was a series of rulings on the unconstitutionality of the electoral district apportionment system. Although the Court ruled in 1964 that legislative districting was largely a matter of legislative policy, it ruled in 1976 that a 5:1 discrepancy in the voter-to-representative ratio between two districts was an unconstitutional violation of the right to an equal vote.[4]
Current Justices
| Title | Name | Petty Bench | University | Background | Previous occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Justice | Niro Shimada | Second | Tokyo | Judge | President, Osaka High Court |
| Justice | Kazuko Yokoo | First | ICU | Diplomat | Ambassador of Japan to Ireland |
| Justice | Tokiyasu Fujita | Third | Tokyo | Academic | Professor, Tohoku University School of Law |
| Justice | Tatsuo Kainaka | First | Chuo | Prosecutor | Director, Tokyo Public Prosecutor's Office |
| Justice | Tokuji Izumi | First | Kyoto | Judge | President, Tokyo High Court |
| Justice | Chiharu Saiguchi | First | Chūō | Attorney | Member, Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Supreme Court |
| Justice | Osamu Tsuno | Second | Kyoto | Bureaucrat, attorney | Director-General, Cabinet Legislation Bureau |
| Justice | Isao Imai | Second | Kyoto | Judge | President, Tokyo High Court |
| Justice | Ryoji Nakagawa | Second | Kanazawa | Attorney | Vice-President, Japan Federation of Bar Associations |
| Justice | Yukio Horigome | Third | Tokyo | Judge | President, Osaka High Court |
| Justice | Yuki Yoshida | Second | Tokyo | Prosecutor | Professor, Doshisha University School of Law |
| Justice | Kohei Nasu | Third | Tokyo | Attorney | Professor, University of Tokyo School of Law |
| Justice | Norio Wakui | First | Kyoto | Judge | President, Osaka High Court |
| Justice | Mutsuo Tahara | Third | Kyoto | Attorney | Guest Professor, Kyoto University |
| Justice | Takaharu Kondo | Third | Tokyo | Judge | President, Sendai High Court |
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ^ Food Staple Management Law Constitutionality Case, 4 Minshu 73 (1950).
- ^ National Police Reserve Constitutionality Case, 6 Minshu 783 (1952).
- ^ Herbert F. Bolz, "Judicial Review in Japan: The Strategy of Restraint," Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 4:87 (1980).
- ^ William Somers Bailey, "Reducing Malapportionment in Japan's Electoral Districts: The Supreme Court Must Act," Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal 6:169 (1997).
This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan
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