On May 9, 2006, the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office announced that it is, on a trial basis, going to introduce visual/audio recording of interrogations in the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office, etc., in order to prepare for the Saiban-in (lay judge) system to be introduced in 2009. However, only limited cases and duration of interrogations will be electronically recorded. The cases to be recorded are confined to serious cases which will be examined by Saiban-in trials, and the time period will be chosen at the discretion of prosecutors. Furthermore, interrogations by the police will not be recorded.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) made a comment regarding the above announcement that although it welcomes the said measure as a step forward, it is concerned that such electronic recording of partial interrogations might not solve the problems on trustworthiness and voluntariness of confessions. Thus, the JFBA strongly requests to electronically record all interrogation processes and expects the authorities concerned to make further decision.

Prior to present the comment, the JFBA Central Board on Institutionalization of Electronic Recording of Interrogations adopted its action policies on May 1 as follows:

1. to work for transparency of interrogations in practice;
2. to negotiate with authorities concerned with criminal justice;
3. to promote to public, mass media, diet members, etc.,
4. to conduct research and studies to convince the opposition.

Especially, regarding the above-mentioned 1, the JFBA seeks cooperation from its members nationwide to request visual/audio recording of interrogations, provide suspects with special notebooks to transcribe interrogations, and insist on visual/audio recording of interrogations in daily criminal defense practices in trials including pretrial procedures.