Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� January, 2004

The Fifteenth Meeting of the Advisory Board of the Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform Tuesday, January 27, 2004 The Fifteenth Meeting of the Advisory Board of the Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and discussion took place over a bill scheduled to be submitted to the 159th session of the Diet. At the meeting, discussions took place over i) development of a "judicial information network" where people can easily receive information and service necessary to solve troubles on legal matters from anywhere in Japan; ii) creation of a "high court devoted to intellectual property cases (provisional name)" to strengthen comprehensive measures to respond to cases related to intellectual property; iii) creation of an "industrial court system (provisional name)" to facilitate prompt and adequate conflict resolution in response to increase in the number of labor dispute cases; and iv) revision of the Trade Union Law to expedite and improve precision of the investigation of unfair labor practice by the Labor Relations Commission. At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, "This year is the year to finalize the justice system reform. I would like to ask for further assistance from each of you advisors for the creation of a 'more accessible, speedy and reliable judicial system.'"