ニュース 2010/04/14 Upper House approves amendment to abolish statute of limitations for crimes of murder punishable by death penalty On April 14, the plenary session of the House of Councillors passed a partial revision of the criminal code and the criminal procedure law, including the abolition of the statute of limitations for murder, by 210 votes to 7. Minister of Justice Keiko Chiba had previously explained the proposed revisions to the House of Councillors Committee on Judicial Affairs on April 1 as follows: With regard to the statute of limitations on the prosecution of crimes, calls from the families of victims and others for a review of its application to crimes, such as murder, which have caused the death of the victim, have been increasing in recent years, and it has been pointed out that rationale for the statute of limitations, such as the decline in the desire for punishment over time, do not necessarily apply to such crimes. As a result of such opinions, it appears that the feeling that, in the case of crimes such as murder, which have caused loss of life, it is unjust that the guilty party should go unpunished following the passing of a certain period of time, and that the criminal responsibility for such crimes should be pursued over a longer period of time, has come to be widely shared among the public. The proposed legislation, in view of the various circumstances surrounding crimes that have caused the death of an individual, and in order to secure the appropriate degree of power of prosecution in the case of such crimes, aims to amend the criminal code and the criminal procedure law and to undertake the necessary legal revisions. The main points of the proposal are, firstly, to amend the criminal procedure law, revising the provisions regarding the statute of limitations for prosecuting crimes which have caused the death of an individual, and regarding crimes which have caused such a death, removing those which are subject to the death penalty from crimes covered by the statute of limitations, and raising the statute of limitations to 30 years on crimes subject to a life sentence or life imprisonment, to 20 years for those crimes subject to a maximum sentence or term of imprisonment of 20 years, and to 10 years for crimes subject to other sentences or terms of imprisonment. Furthermore, this amendment will apply to crimes committed prior to its implementation, and crimes for which the statute of limitations has not expired at the time of its implementation. Secondly, we will amend the criminal code, revising the provisions regarding the statute of limitations for punishments [i.e. in the event a convicted criminal escapes from prison before completion of their sentence] to make them equivalent to the statute of limitations for prosecuting crimes, removing the statute of limitations for punishments applicable to a life sentence or life imprisonment, and raising the statute of limitations for punishments applicable to a life sentence or life imprisonment to 30 years, for punishments applicable to a maximum sentence or imprisonment of more than 10 years to 20 years.