A Happy New Year. This is the second New Year since I assumed the presidency of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA).

For these two years, I have been voicing that human beings will hardly be able to survive without making the 21st century one of peace, human rights, and the environment, and it is our mission to create a society of all fairness, equitability, and understanding. I also have been engaging in the JFBA activities from the point of view that whether our activities would contribute to the protection of the interests of the people.

Among three pillars of the judicial reform, law schools and the Japan Legal Support Center have already started, while the Saiban-in (lay judge) system is to commence next year. We have been pursuing the justice system reform and it is about to achieve a milestone. Last year, we made significant progress in legislative issues by great efforts of all JFBA members concerning the gatekeeper system which would otherwise require lawyers to report suspicious transactions, and the revisions of the Juvenile Act, the Rules of the National Public Safety Commission, and the Natural Disaster Victim Relief Act. We will continue to strongly oppose legislation to criminalize conspiracy on which the Diet will resume deliberation. We also urge to revise the act on referendum for revising the Constitution, which was adopted with a supplementary resolution of eighteen items.

Other challenges for this year are:
-to institutionalize audio/video recordings of interrogations,
-to take measures responding to the public criminal defense system for suspects,
-to raise fees of court-appointed attorneys,
-to prepare for the Saiban-in system,
-to realize a court-appointed attorney system for crime victims as a newly established system enables crime victims to participate in criminal trials, and
-to realize the gender equality.

In addition, we should, with a mid- and long-term perspective, tackle issues concerning revision of the Constitution, increasing attorney population, the Council for the Promotion of Regulatory Reform of the Cabinet, reform of the attorney training system, the environment, and internationalization.

I will make every effort to overcome these challenges and issues and ask for the understanding and cooperation of all JFBA members.

Seigoh Hirayama
President
Japan Federation of Bar Associations