ABSTRACT
Public prosecutors play a dominant role in the system, and decisions made by them during the investigative stage seem to be determinative of later conduct and the outcome of cases. When a suspect is under arrest or detention, an investigation officer examines the suspect in an interrogation room and records his statement. The traditional view is that the trial is the centerpiece of the adversarial criminal process. However, under the Japanese criminal law system, it has been recognized that, at the early stages of the process, marked inequality of resources exists between the two adversaries. More fundamentarily, the role that public prosecutors ought to play in the “adversarial” criminal justice system in Japan needs to be clarified, and the importance of the defense lawyers’ role must be better recognized. Only then will the Japanese criminal justice system strike a balance between efficient prosecution and the rights of accused.
