Juvenile Crimes

Despite the grooming of their parents, some kids may grow up and become “juvenile delinquents.” And they (often with their bad friends) are sometimes driven to shoplifting, assaulting, driving motorbikes (without license), and so on.

In Japan, the age of criminal liability is above 14 (14 included). Which means,14 year old can be arrested by the police.

After juveniles (14-19 year old kids)  are arrested, they could be held at the police station for maximum 23 days. Then, they’ll be sent to the Family Court (instead of the District Court where the adults will be sent). In many cases they will be sent directly to the Juvenile Classification Office from the Court, and within 4 weeks, the Juvenile Trial will be held at the Court.

All these procedures will be done in less than 50 days, so it is critical to find and appoint a lawyer in the early stage of these procedures.

And, during this procedure, the juvenile may not be able to go home. They could be held at the police station or the Juvenile Classification Office during that period. Of course an interpreter will be arranged when needed, but Policemen and Officers in charge may not speak English. That’s very discouraging for kids. So, if your kid is involved in juvenile crime (of course he/she may be innocent), don’t hesitate to contact a lawyer who can speak English.

When we handle juvenile crimes, we lay weight on the juveniles’ sound development, which we think is very important for our future society.

Juvenile Act
Article 1
The purpose of this Act is to subject delinquent Juveniles to protective measures to correct their personality traits and modify their environment, and to implement special measures for juvenile criminal cases, for the purpose of Juveniles’ sound development.