Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� January, 2002

The First Meeting of the Advisory Board of the Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform Friday, January 18, 2002 The first meeting of the Advisory Board of the Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. In his opening address, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stated, "The reform of the justice system is of vital importance and urgency in converting to a post facto check and relief society with clearly established rules and principles of self-responsibility. From the perspective of those who use the system, namely the people of Japan, this will be a large reform that will drastically revise the basic justice system. In December 2001, I established an Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform within the Cabinet in order to allow the entire Government to work enthusiastically to achieve such reform, while at the same time establishing an Advisory Board in order to provide a conduit to input the insights of learned individuals from all sectors of society." Furthermore, the Prime Minister expressed his resolve to devote his utmost efforts to building a justice system that will engender the close trust of the people.