Code of Criminal Procedure

No document relating to a trial may be made public prior to the commencement of the trial; provided however, that this does not apply when it is necessary for the public interest or other reasons, and when it is deemed to be appropriate.

Court proceedings on trial dates must be recorded in the trial records.

Trial records must be prepared as electronic or magnetic records pursuant to the Rules of Court, and recorded in the file.

Important particulars relating to the trial on trial dates must be recorded in the trial records pursuant to the Rules of Court.

Trial records must be recorded in the file promptly after each trial date, and at the latest, by the time of pronouncement of the judgment; provided however, that the trial record of the trial date on which the judgment is pronounced need only be recorded in the file within 7 days after said trial date, and the trial record of the trial date need only be recorded in the file within 10 days after the trial date if the time period from the trial date to the date of pronouncement of the judgment is less than 10 days (within 7 days after the trial date pronouncing the judgment if the time period up to the date of pronouncement of the judgment is less than three days).

If the defendant has no defense counsel, said defendant may also, pursuant to the Rules of Court, inspect what displays the contents of the trial records or view and listen to what reproduces their contents. When the defendant is unable to read or see, said defendant may request the contents of the trial records to be read aloud.

If the trial records have not been recorded in the file by the time of the next trial date, the court clerk must, upon the request of a public prosecutor, the defendant or the defense counsel, give an outline of the statements given by the witnesses on the previous trial date either on or before the next trial date. In this case, when the public prosecutor, the defendant or the defense counsel who has made the request raises an objection to the accuracy of the outline of the statements, such objection must be written or recorded in the record (including those prepared as electronic or magnetic records; the same applies in paragraph (1) of the following Article, Article 65, paragraph (2), Article 157-6, paragraph (5), Article 198 and Article 241, paragraph (3)).

If the trial records of a trial date without the appearance of the defendant and defense counsel have not been recorded in the file before the next trial date, the court clerk must inform, either on or before the next trial date, the defendant or the defense counsel who has appeared of important particulars relating to the trial held on the previous trial date.

A public prosecutor, the defendant or defense counsel may raise an objection to the accuracy of trial records. If such an objection is raised, said objection must be written or recorded in the record.

The objection prescribed in the preceding paragraph must be raised within 14 days after the last trial date of that instance at the latest; provided however, that with regard to trial records recorded in the file after the trial date pronouncing the judgment set forth in the provisions of the proviso to Article 48, paragraph (4), objection may be raised within 14 days after the date on which they were recorded in the file.

Court proceedings on the trial dates recorded in trial records can only be certified by said trial records.

Any person may inspect case records after conclusion of a case; provided however, that this does not apply when such inspection interferes with the preservation of the case records or the business of the court or the public prosecutor's office.

Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, only persons concerned in a case or persons who have justifiable reason and have been specially granted permission by the custodian may inspect the case records in which a prohibition has been imposed on the oral arguments being made open to the public or on case records being inspected owing to the inappropriateness of inspection by the public.

With regard to the cases prescribed in the proviso to Article 82, paragraph (2) of the Constitution of Japan, case records may not be prohibited for inspection.

When all or part of the case records under paragraph (1) are electronic or magnetic records, the inspection of such electronic or magnetic records under the provisions of that paragraph is to be by means of inspecting what displays their contents or viewing and listening to what reproduces their contents.

Particulars concerning the keeping of case records and fees for inspection of case records are provided by other acts.

The provisions of the Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs (Act No. 42 of 1999) and the Act on Access to Information Held by Independent Administrative Agencies (Act No. 140 of 2001) do not apply to documents relating to trials and seized articles.

The provisions of Chapter V, Section 4 of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Act No. 57 of 2003) do not apply to personal information recorded in documents relating to trials and seized articles.

The provisions of Chapter II of the Public Records and Archives Management Act (Act No. 66 of 2009) do not apply to documents relating to trials. In this case, with regard to application of the provisions of Chapter IV of the same Act to documents relating to trials, "state organ (except for administrative organs; the same applies hereinafter in this Article)" in the text of Article 14, paragraph (1) of the same Act and the "state organ (except for administrative organs)" in the text of Article 16, paragraph (1), item (iii) of the same Act are "state organ".

The Public Records and Archives Management Act does not apply to seized articles.

Except as otherwise provided for by the Rules of Court, the provisions of laws and regulations concerning civil procedure (excluding Article 109-4 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Act No. 109 of 1996) and the provisions of Part I, Chapter V, Section 4, Subsection 4 of that Act) apply mutatis mutandis to service. In this case, the phrase "court in charge of the case" in Article 109-2, paragraph (2) of that Act is deemed to be replaced with "court".