Only 2 percent of 14- or 15-year-olds found guilty of heinous crimes since 1965 have been convicted of committing similar crimes again, according to a Justice Ministry survey released July 24.

Amid growing public sentiment questioning the Juvenile Law after the shocking arrest of a 15-year-old Kobe boy suspected of murdering and beheading an 11-year-old boy in late May, the ministry decided to conduct the rare survey using records kept by the ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau.

Under the law, those between 14- and 19-years-old can be held responsible for committing crimes, but those below 16 cannot be tried as criminal defendants. Of 40 14- and 15-year-olds who committed vicious crimes such as murder and robbery resulting in murder over the past 30 years, only one has been found to have repeated a vicious criminal action, according to the survey.

"This figure shows that the possibility of 14- or 15-year-olds repeating vicious crimes is small," said Shozo Fujita, criminal affairs bureau chief of the ministry. However, 17 of the 40 youths, or 42 percent, did commit less-serious offenses such as theft or assault after serving terms at juvenile correction centers.