Criminal majority in Japan: what was decided and implemented

On a cross-national continuum of juvenile justice, with a welfare model at one end and a criminal justice model at the other (Hazel, 2008 23 24), by sending all cases of those under 20 to the Family Court, Japan still more closely resembles the former. Retention of twenty as the age of criminal maturity stands out against the shift to adulthood at eighteen in the Civil Code and in voting. It recognises the efficacy of protective measures to reduce recidivism, and perhaps also recent neuro-scientific evidence that mental development of young people is not complete until their mid-twenties (Blakemore, 2012), However by widening instances when 18 and 19 year olds may be tried in adult courts, removal from them of protective juvenile probation and attendance at Juvenile Training and, in some instances, allowing their names to be made public, a distinct and controversial move in the direction of the latter part of continuum has taken place by amendments to the Juvenile Law, brought into effect on 1st April, 2022.