Administrative Complaint Review Board

A board set up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省) to deal with the matters the Administrative Complaint Review Act puts in its charge (Administrative Complaint Review Act, Article 67). Where the agency deciding a request for review (審査請求) is the competent minister (主任の大臣), the Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency (宮内庁長官) or the head of certain agencies, it must as a rule consult the board once the review officer (審理員) has handed in an opinion — but not, among other cases, where a council already deliberated on the disposition (処分), where the person requesting the review has said they do not want the board consulted and no intervenor (参加人) objects, where the request is unlawful and is dismissed, or where a disposition other than one refusing an application is to be revoked in full, or an application is to be granted in full, and no one has opposed that; where the agency is the head of a local government (地方公共団体), it consults a body the local government sets up instead (Articles 43, paragraph (1), and 81). Another Act can send the consultation to a body of its own instead, or do without it: a request for review of a decision on disclosure under the Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs is put to the Information Disclosure and Personal Information Protection Review Board (情報公開・個人情報保護審査会) (Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs, Articles 18, paragraph (2), and 19, paragraph (1); Administrative Complaint Review Act, Article 1, paragraph (2)). The board has nine members, part-time, though up to three may be full-time (Article 68), appointed by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務大臣), with the consent of both Houses of the Diet (国会), from people who can judge fairly and have outstanding insight into law or administration, for three years (Article 69, paragraphs (1) and (4)). It examines each case in a panel of three members it names, or of all its members where it so decides (Article 72). When it has answered a consultation, it sends a copy of its written report (答申書) to the person who requested the review and to any intervenor, and makes the report public (Article 79). The agency that consulted it must then make its determination (裁決) without delay, and where the determination's conclusion differs from the report, it must give the reasons for that (Articles 44 and 50, paragraph (1), item (iv)).