Some 20 Diet members, mostly Democratic Party of Japan members, have formed a Diet members' federation to consider the shape of the nation's judicial system. The federation formed on April 28 — one day after the No. 5 Prosecution Inquest Committee in Tokyo, a judicial review panel of 11 citizens, unanimously called for the indictment of DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa in connection with an alleged violation of the Political Funds Control Law by his funds management body.
The lawmakers should refrain from any act that could be taken as a partisan move to help Mr. Ozawa. In a meeting to start the federation, Mr. Megumu Tsuji, a DPJ Lower House member, wondered whether it is correct for a prosecution inquest committee to call for the indictment of one person after another out of "people's emotions."
Apparently this was a reference not only to the call for the indictment of Mr. Ozawa but also to the actual indictments by lawyers — following votes by judicial review panels — of a former police station vice chief in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, in the July 21, 2001, fireworks event stampede that killed 11 people and injured more than 180, and of three former JR West presidents in the April 25, 2005, train accident in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, which killed the driver and 106 passengers and injured 562.