Chapter VI Documents and Service

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.

①Court proceedings on trial dates must be recorded in the trial records.

②Important particulars relating to the trial on trial dates must be recorded in the trial records pursuant to the Rules of Court.

③Trial records must be completed promptly after each trial date, and at the latest, by the time of pronouncement of the judgment; provided however, that the record for the trial date on which the judgment is pronounced need only be completed within 7 days after said trial date, and the record for the trial date need only be completed 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 inspect the trial records pursuant to the Rules of Court. When the defendant is unable to read or see, said defendant may request the trial records to be read aloud.

①If the trial records have not been completed 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 recorded in the trial records.

②If the trial records of a trial date without the appearance of the defendant and defense counsel have not been completed 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.

①A 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 recorded in the trial records.

②The 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 completed after the trial date pronouncing the judgment set forth in the provisions of the proviso to Article 48, paragraph (3), objection may be raised within 14 days after completion of the trial records.

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

①Any 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.

②Notwithstanding 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.

③With 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.

④Particulars concerning the keeping of case records and fees for inspection of case records are provided by other acts.

①The 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.

②The 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.

③The 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".

④The 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 100, paragraph (2) of the Code of Civil Procedure (Act No. 109 of 1996) and the provisions of Part I, Chapter V, Section 4, Subsections 3 and 4 of that Act) apply mutatis mutandis to the service of documents.