On May 18, 2022, the Legislation amending part of the Rules of Civil Procedure, etc., was passed by the House of Councilors and promulgated on May 25, 2022. (Law No. 48)
The Act's primary purpose is to encourage the use of IT, to speed up and improve the efficiency of civil proceedings and make civil trials more accessible to the public.
The specific details are as follows:
In the deliberation process, organizations for persons with disabilities requested that the information be accessible to the visually impaired, blind, deaf, hard of hearing, etc. However, this request was not reflected in the text of the Act. Nevertheless, the request resulted in the supplementary resolution to include the sentence below:
How procedures can be accommodating for persons with disabilities who use civil proceedings are to be considered, including whether or not legislation should be developed to improve access for persons with disabilities. Consideration should be given to the system's operation after this Act comes into force and to the opinions of persons with disabilities to take the necessary measures.
The Act can be found on the website below.
https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_gian.nsf/html/gian/honbun/g20809054.htm
The supplementary resolution is below.
https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb_rchome.nsf/html/rchome/Futai/houmu43F98F291A2C23594925882B002FF1D9.htm