Groups opposed to a bill to revise the juvenile law said Tuesday that the bill failed to include the opinions of specialists in the juvenile court system and needs more discussion.
The objections follow the Cabinet's endorsement the same day of the bill, which would revise the Juvenile Law to conditionally allow public prosecutors to attend family court proceedings involving serious crimes by juveniles.
Criminal law specialists and two groups of lawyers and citizens opposed to allowing prosecutors to participate in juvenile court proceedings criticized the bill to be submitted today as being drawn up mainly with the intention of using the same methods of handling adult criminals for children.
"The spirit of the current juvenile law (to protect and rehabilitate juvenile offenders) meets the direction international society is taking," said Shinichi Ishizuka of Ryukoku University and a representative of the scholar's group. "What is questioned here is society's attitude toward the children of the 21st century, and I think the reform (bill) goes in the wrong direction," he said.