The first meeting of the Legislative Council's Subcommittee on Criminal Law concerning Sexual Offenses was held on 27 October 2021.

Prior to this, on 16 September 2021, the Minister of Justice issued the Consultation on Legislation to Deal with Sexual Offenses (Consultation No. 117). The 191st meeting of the Legislative Council held on the same day decided to establish this subcommittee.

The background of the consultation is that penalties for sex crimes were revised as per the Act for Partial Revision of the Penal Code enacted in June 2017. And Article 9 of the Supplementary Provisions of the Revised Act states that the MOJ shall conduct a review approximately three years after the enforcement of this Act. In reviewing the Act, the MOJ shall consider the state of measures against sex crimes according to the actual situation of sex crimes, the situation of victims of sex crimes, and the enforcement of the revised provisions of this Act. It also states that if the MOJ finds it necessary, it shall take necessary measures based on the review results.

In order to contribute to this review, the MOJ has convened the Working Group to investigate the actual situation for the Review of Measures Against Sexual Offenses since April 2018, which consisted of persons in charge of the relevant departments within the MOJ. From there, it published the summary report in March 2020.

In addition, from June of the same year, the Study Group on the Legalization of Sexual Offenses started to meet and compiled a report in May 2021.

The Subcommittee will mainly deliberate on the following three issues:

(1)  The development of substantive criminal laws to ensure the appropriate punishment commensurate to the damage caused by sexual intercourse and indecent acts against the will of the other party.

• Revise the conditions required for crimes of indecent assault and forced sexual intercourse and the crimes of quasi-indecent assault and quasi-indecent sexual intercourse against persons 13 years of age or older.
• Raise the age at which the crime of indecent assault or forced sexual intercourse can be committed even in the absence of assault or threats.
• Establish new crimes relating to sexual intercourse or indecent acts committed by taking advantage of the vulnerability of the other party or the fact that the offender has a certain status or relationship with the other party.
• Review the Penal Code on indecent penetration subject to the crime of indecent assault.
• Clarify if forced sexual intercourse committed between spouses is a crime.
• Establish a new crime of grooming a young person for sexual intercourse or other indecent acts.

(2) Development of criminal procedural laws to enable the appropriate exercise of the right to prosecution in accordance with the actual situation of the victims of sexual crimes

• Review the statute of limitations for prosecution of sex crimes.
• Establish a new particular provision on the capacity of audio and video recording media in which the investigative body records the results of interviews with the victim.

(3) Development of substantive and procedural laws to ensure the appropriate punishment for the act of photographing sexual images against the will of the other party and to ensure that the images can be deleted.

• Establish a new crime related to the act of taking pictures of sexual positions and the act of providing such pictures.
• Introduce a system that allows confiscating and deleting images of sexual positions.

The contents of the deliberations are deeply related to people with disabilities.

For more information, please visit the website (Japanese).
https://www.moj.go.jp/shingi1/housei02_003011