Three judges have been reprimanded in connection with a scandal involving copies of police investigative documents concerning a Fukuoka High Court judge's wife, who was arrested on suspicion of sending death threats.
The copies were sent to the high court from the Fukuoka District Court, which was handling police requests for warrants for the 40-year-old wife of Ryuichi Furukawa, 48, officials said.
The Supreme Court on Friday reprimanded Masaaki Aoyama, high court chief judge, and Akio Doi, high court secretary general, while the Fukuoka High Court reprimanded Keiichi Konagamitsu, head of the district court, for lack of sufficient supervision over personnel.
Konagamitsu, 64, was accused of sloppy supervision that had allowed employees to copy the warrant requests after they learned police were targeting Furukawa's wife.
The top court said highly confidential investigative documents should not have been allowed to be copied for delivery.
The papers were copied and handed over to the high court on five occasions between Dec. 13 and Jan. 31, according to Friday's court decisions. Aoyama, 63, and Doi, 50, were cited for failing to question the propriety of the high court receiving the copied documents.
The reprimands were finalized during special one-day trials that were held separately in the two courts.
The original documents were submitted to the district court by Fukuoka Prefectural Police requesting five search and arrest warrants during the seven-week period.
Furukawa's wife, Sonoko, was arrested Jan. 31 on suspicion of sending death threats by e-mail to a woman over a man Sonoko had met through a phone dating service.
In addition, a former deputy head of the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office has resigned over the leak.
Eiju Yamashita's resignation followed a Justice Ministry's decision to suspend the prosecutor six months. Yamashita, 51, announced his resignation effective Saturday.