법정에서의 메모･녹음･녹화, 소송기록의 공개

Taking notes in court may not be prohibited unless there are any special reasons to prohibit them, such as in an instance where such notes are prepared so as to inform a witness, who is on standby to give testimony, about the progress of the relevant trial. In the past, Japan did not allow anyone in the general audience to take notes in court without permission from the presiding judge. Such prohibition was based on an overall view or longstanding habit of the Japanese judicial circle that centered on judges rather than the sovereign citizens of Japan. In order to enhance transparency and fairness of trials and improve communication skills of judges and lawyers in court so as to boost people’s trust in court trials, the Civil Procedure Act must be amended to allow audio recording of not only witness examinations and the relevant party’s own examination, but also allow the recording of the entire pleading process, including the remarks made by judges, lawyers and relevant parties. These recorded tapes should be used for performance appraisals, personnel appointments, allotment of tasks, and disciplinary punishments with regard to judges. New provisions should be added to the Civil Procedure Act in order to allow presiding judges to prohibit the distribution of copies of recordings made in court, so as to protect the privacy of the related parties to the relevant litigation, and to impose fines against acts that harm the public order by taking advantage of any information acquired from perusing and copying relevant litigation records. Under the current law, video recordings and broadcasting of a court session requires permission from the relevant presiding judge, which is deemed as a reasonable practice. However, in the mid- to long-term, any permission given to video recordings should take into consideration the developments made in the video-recording technology. By amending Article 162 (2) of the Civil Procedure Act, a third party’s right to request to peruse finalized litigation records for public interest purposes as well as make copies of such records should be allowed.