Knocking at the Door of the Stone Fortress: Appeals to the Supreme Court under Japan’s 1996 Code of Civil Procedure

Abstract

In 1996, reforms to the Code of Civil Procedure significantly changed the scope of appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan. A key objective of the reform was to reduce the Court’s heavy caseload. The new appeal procedures restricted appeals ‘as of right’ to the Court, and introduced a new form of ‘discretionary’ appeal to give the Court greater control over its docket. Over fifteen years later, this article presents the first long-term statistical analysis of Supreme Court appeals under the 1996 Code. It finds that, contrary to the re­formers’ original goals, final appeals filed in the Supreme Court have increased signifi­cantly since the 1996 Code came into operation. In particular, the number of discretion­ary appeals has increased dramatically under the 1996 Code.

The article begins with a discussion of the drivers of reform and the technical changes to appeals introduced by the 1996 Code. Second, it analyses the statistical evidence on appeals performance over the past two decades, focusing on the number of applications for appeal filed, how those appeals are finalised, and the average times for finalisation. The third section of this article discusses the ‘success’ of the reforms by reference to the reformers’ original objectives and the rule of law. The statistical evidence suggests that, while the Court’s civil appeal caseload has increased drastically under the 1996 Code, those appeals are being finalised faster on average and the Court is arguably focusing its effort on more legally ‘important’ cases. The final portion of this article discusses whether there is need for further reform in the future, ultimately concluding that the desirability of further changes to appeal procedures depends on the role expected of the Supreme Court in the Japanese civil justice system.