PROSECUTORIAL INDEPENDENCE IN JAPAN A. Didrick Castbergt I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW The position of public prosecutor 1 was created in 1872, four years after the start of the Meiji era (1868 - 1912), in a legal sys- tem based on both French and German models. 2 This system was essentially inquisitorial, and judges and prosecutors were given equal status within the Ministry of Justice, to the point that judge and prosecutor sat side by side in the courtroom, 3 but ini- tially, at least, the prosecutor did not have independent investiga- tory powers. 4 Prosecutors were given these powers starting in 1897 in response to public demands after large numbers of cases resulted in acquittals due to insufficient evidence. 5 As convic- tions increased, public confidence in prosecutors grew. The power of the prosecutor reached its zenith during the 1930s, a period also marked by repression and uncontrolled police pow- t Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii at Hilo. The author spent the 1987-88 academic year in Japan on a Fulbright and sabbatical, and several months there again in 1996 on another sabbatical, during which he conducted re- search for this article. The author would like to acknowledge the assistance, in alphabetical order, of the following individuals, without whose help this article could not have been writ- ten: Akane Tomoko, Hiraragi Tokio, Inouye Masahito, Ito Osamu, Morigiwa Yasutomo, Saikai Kunihiko, Shiibashi Takayuki, Taguchi Morikazu, Yamaguchi At- sushi, and Yamamuro Megumi. 1. Or as it is frequently referred to in Japanese English-language publications, procurator. However, here we will use the term prosecutor. See Nagashima Atsushi, The Accused and Society: The Administration of Criminal Justice in Ja- pan,LAw IN JAPAN: THE LEGAL ORDER IN A CHANGING SOCIETY 297, 298 (Arthur Taylor von Mehren, ed., & B.J. George, Jr., trans.) (1963). 2. See B.J. George, Jr., Discretionary Authority of Public Prosecutors in Japan, 17 LAW IN JAPAN 42, 42 (1984), and Marcia E. Goodman, The Exercise and Control of Prosecutorial Discretion in Japan, 5 UCLA PAC. BASIN L. J. 16, 20 (1986). 3. Dando Shigemitsu, JAPANESE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 14-15 (B.J. George, Jr., trans.) (1965). 4. Goodman, supra note 2, at 20; Nagashima, supra note 1, at 298. 5. Nagashima, supra note 1, at 298.