An expert panel under Japan's Justice Ministry has compiled a report calling for the creation of a database of all rulings in civil and administrative lawsuits.
In the report finalized Monday, the panel, chaired by Hitotsubashi University professor Kazuhiko Yamamoto, called for the establishment of a new information management organization to manage the proposed database, which is expected to enable the use of big data analytics to find ways to prevent and resolve disputes.
The ministry plans to submit a related bill during next year's ordinary session of parliament, with a view to launching the database in fiscal 2026.
In May 2022, the civil procedure law was revised to fully digitalize civil court procedures. The revised law, under which court rulings will be managed in electronic data, will take effect by 2026.
The envisioned nonprofit information management organization would collect rulings from courts across Japan and redact personal information in the rulings, such as names, birth dates and parts of addresses. The database would be made available to law professionals and researchers for a fee.
The consent of those involved in lawsuits would not be required to add rulings to the database. If it is possible to identify personal information when combined with other information, the organization would consider anonymization measures at the request of those concerned.
A total of about 200,000 civil court rulings are issued each year by courts across the country. As only some of these are published in law journals, there have been growing calls for more information to be made available.