The Osaka District Court has overturned the Justice Ministry’s decision not to release documents related to the decision to postpone the retirement of Hiromu Kurokawa, former head of the Tokyo Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The court ruled on Thursday in a lawsuit filed by Hiroshi Kamiwaki, a professor at Kobe Gakuin University. He argued that the ministry’s refusal to make public documents on the reinterpretation of a law before the postponement was unlawful.
Presiding Judge Atsushi Tokuchi ruled that “the interpretation was changed to extend Kurokawa’s term.”
Previously, the Public Prosecution Service Act set the retirement age for public prosecutors, with the exception of the attorney general, at 63 years.
However, in January 2020, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government decided to delay Kurokawa’s retirement beyond the limit by changing the government’s interpretation of the law. Kurokawa is said to have close ties to Abe’s government.
In the lawsuit, the department said there were documents showing it was considering changing its interpretation of the law to extend the terms of all prosecutors. However, there were no documents specifically intended to extend Kurokawa’s term.
“I am forced to believe that the purpose of the change in interpretation was to extend Kurokawa’s term in office,” as the change was made in a short period of time, without sufficient time to inform prosecutors across the country so that it could be done before his retirement date, Tokuchi said.
The judge determined that the Justice Ministry is in possession of information about Kurokawa, reversing the ministry’s confidentiality decision.
