May 16, 2026

The Takaichi government on May 15 submitted to the Diet a bill to revise the criminal retrial system. However, the bill includes provisions, far from the swift saving of false accusation victims, such as one that allows prosecutors to appeal a court’s retrial order if there is sufficient reasoning.

On the same day, the Japanese Communist Party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, and the “Team Mirai” party jointly introduced to the House of Representatives a retrial system reform bill designed to fully bar prosecutors from challenging a court decision and to oblige them to disclose all evidence they hold during a court examination of a retrial application.

JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference in the Diet building on the day criticized the government-proposed bill by saying, “Pushed by a growing movement calling for a fundamental revision of the retiral system in order to provide relief for victims of wrongful convictions with early retrial decisions, the government finally admitted to the need to revise the current retrial system. Nevertheless, the government-proposed bill turns its back on the issue pertaining to victims’ relief as it contains provisions that may enable prosecutors to obstruct the launch of retrials.”

Stating that the three parties’ bill was drafted based on a reform bill which a cross-party parliamentarians’ group submitted to the Diet last autumn, Koike expressed his determination to work hard to realize the enactment of the three parties’ bill.