On June 1^st, 2018, The Japanese Plea Bargain system known as “Agreement Program for Cooperation of Evidence-Collection Process and Supplementary Actions” was launched.

This newly starting system can only be utilized for special criminal cases (organized crimes, economic crimes, etc.…) between prosecutors and suspects/defendants with defense attorneys’ consent. Suspects/defendants offer information which helps to resolve certain criminal cases of somebody else in exchange for favorable treatment for him/herself such as avoidance of trials, quicker trials, lesser charges and etc.

The purpose of this system is to obtain evidences that would be useful for holistic clarification of the systematic criminal cases and, because this system could also be applied to major economic cases, it may majorly affects the corporate activities. For example, an employee who is responsible for certain crime, in the hopes of avoiding criminal charges against him/her, presents statements and evidences which incriminate corporate higher-ups by utilizing this plea bargain system.

By this system, you could expect more criminal cases involving corporate higher-ups being brought to light. On the other hand, it may increase the likelihood of risk for false accusation with mendacious statements. Much prudence and deliberation must be given for the operation of this system.

Be that as it may, you could say that it is more important nowadays for the corporations to improve corporate compliance by creating the mechanism where iniquitous acts cannot happen, and in the event where iniquitous acts do happen, to strive to develop structure where those acts can be swiftly detected.

Kanako Isa