While the destruction of court records has become a problem, it was found that the Oita District Court had destroyed the records of six civil trials that had been designated to be permanently preserved.
This was reported at the first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Record Preservation held by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
In response to the problem that records of juvenile cases, such as the Kobe serial child murder case, were destroyed in courts around the country, the Supreme Court asked courts nationwide to check the preservation status of records. It was found that 6 of the 19 records designated as ``special preservation'' to be permanently preserved had been discarded.
According to the Supreme Court, the six cases were civil cases such as compensation for damages and confirmation of status, all of which were discarded in February this year.
In addition, at the committee meeting on the 25th, the current status of interviews with Kobe family court officials and others at the time when the records of the Kobe incident were discarded was reported.
In addition, Secretary-General Shinya Hotta said, "I have to say that the mechanism for appropriately carrying out 'special preservation' was not sufficient. This is a problem for the entire court, and we take it seriously. I am sorry and I have to reflect frankly."
The Supreme Court will continue to listen to the opinions of experts, summarize and announce future measures.