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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).

Contents

History

Organization of the Court

Judicial review

Current Justices

See also

External links

Footnotes

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 are designated by the Emperor and appointed by the cabinet.
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."
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

★ Politics of Japan

★ Japanese law

★ Judicial System of Japan

External links

★ Supreme Court of Japan

Footnotes

1. ''Food Staple Management Law Constitutionality Case'', 4 Minshu 73 (1950).
2. ''National Police Reserve Constitutionality Case'', 6 Minshu 783 (1952).
3. Herbert F. Bolz, "Judicial Review in Japan: The Strategy of Restraint," ''Hastings International and Comparative Law Review'' 4:87 (1980).
4. William Somers Bailey, "Reducing Malapportionment in Japan's Electoral Districts: The Supreme Court Must Act," ''Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal'' 6:169 (1997).

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