Code of Criminal Procedure

When a person who has received the pronouncement of a judgment imposing imprisonment or a heavier punishment falls under any of the following items, a public prosecutor may, after the judgment has become final and binding, immediately issue a writ of commitment or have a judicial police officer issue the writ.

the person has departed from Japan, or attempted to do so, without receiving the permission under Article 342-2;

the permission under Article 342-2 has been rescinded;

the person, having received the permission under Article 342-2, has failed, without justifiable grounds, to return to or land in Japan within the designated period.

When the current residence of a person who has been sentenced to the death penalty, imprisonment, or penal detention is unknown, a public prosecutor may request the Superintending Prosecutor that the person be committed to a penal institution.

The Superintending Prosecutor who receives a request must have a public prosecutor within the jurisdiction issue a warrant of commitment.

A writ of commitment shall state or record the name, residence and age of the person who has received a sentence, the category and term of the sentence, and any other matters necessary for confinement.

With regard to a writ of commitment, a public prosecutor or a judicial police officer must take the measure specified in the relevant item in accordance with the category of cases set forth in the following items.

Where the writ of commitment is in writing: affixing a name and seal;

Where the writ of commitment is an electronic or magnetic record: taking a measure prescribed by Ministry of Justice Order that takes the place of affixing a name and seal (limited to a measure that causes the name of the public prosecutor or the judicial police officer to be displayed together when the matters recorded in the writ of commitment are displayed on the screen of a computer, on paper or on anything else).

A writ of commitment shall have the same effect as a subpoena.

With regard to execution of a writ of commitment, the provisions regarding execution of subpoenas shall apply mutatis mutandis. In this case, the phrase "as prescribed by the Rules of Court" in Article 73, paragraph (1), item (ii) is deemed to be replaced with "as prescribed by Ministry of Justice Order".

Decisions imposing a fine, petty fine, confiscation, collection of a sum of equivalent value in lieu of confiscation, non-penal fine, non-penal confiscation, court costs, compensation for costs, and provisional payment are to be executed by order of the public prosecutor. Such an order has the same effect as a title of obligation.

The execution of the decisions referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Execution Act (Act No. 4 of 1979) and any other laws concerning compulsory enforcement; provided, however, that the process of the decisions need not be served before their execution.

When a person has been sentenced to confiscation, or to fines or collection of a sum of equivalent value in lieu of confiscation in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations on taxation and other public impositions and on monopolies, in the event that said person dies after the decision becomes final and binding, the sentence may be executed on said person's estate.

When a juridical person has been sentenced to a fine, petty fine, confiscation or collection of a sum of equivalent value in lieu of confiscation, and that juridical person is dissolved in a merger or consolidation after the decision becomes final and binding, the sentence may be executed on the juridical person that survives the merger or on the juridical person created in the consolidation.

When execution of a judicial decision of provisional payment has been carried out for an amount equivalent to a fine, a detention warrant pertaining to a ruling under the provisions of Article 345-2 (including cases where it is applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 404; the same applies in Article 494-3, Article 494-5 (excluding item (iii)), Article 494-6, paragraph (1), Article 494-8, paragraph (1), Article 494-12, paragraph (1) and Article 494-14) and a ruling under the provisions of Article 342-8, paragraph (1) (limited to the portion pertaining to item (i)) as applied mutatis mutandis with replacement of terms pursuant to Article 345-3 (including cases where it is applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 404; the same applies in Article 494-2) ceases to be effective.

In cases where the decisions are rendered for provisional payment in the first and second instances and the decision for provisional payment in the first instance has already been executed, execution of that decision shall be deemed to be execution of the final decision of provisional payment in the second instance, to the extent that said provisional payment was within the limit of the amount that was ordered to be paid in the decision for provisional payment in the second instance.

In the case set forth in the preceding paragraph, when the amount procured through the execution of the decision for provisional payment in the first instance exceeds the amount which was ordered to be paid in the decision for provisional payment in the second instance, such excess amount shall be returned.

In cases where the decision for a fine, petty fine, or collection of a sum of equivalent value in lieu of confiscation becomes final and binding after execution of the decision for provisional payment, the sentence shall be deemed to have been executed to the extent of that executed amount.

In the case set forth in the preceding paragraph, where the amount procured through execution of the decision for provisional payment exceeds the amount of the fine, petty fine, or collection of a sum of equivalent value in lieu of confiscation, that excess amount shall be returned.

The court that announced a judicial decision imposing a fine is, when it finds that there is a risk that a person in relation to whom the decision has become final and binding will be unable to pay the fine in full (excluding when the ruling under the provisions of Article 345-2 that the person received has not lost its effect), to order, by ruling, upon the request of a public prosecutor, except where it issues a confinement warrant, that the person must not depart from Japan without receiving the permission of the court.