Complete guide
Tokyo Courts & Justice 2026 — The Complete Tokyo Guide
Open justice is one of the oldest civic obligations the press carries, and in Tokyo that means steady, careful coverage of the Summary, District, Family and High Courts of Tokyo, the Tokyo District Court when it sits in Kasumigaseki, and the appellate work that flows up to the Supreme Court of Japan. This guide gathers our continuing reporting on the Japanese justice system: significant criminal trials, civil judgments that change how the metropolis works, trial procedure reform, judicial inquiries, policing policy and the operation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the National Police Agency. We treat every defendant as innocent until proven guilty and link out to the official judgment whenever one is published — we do not republish judgment text or privacy-breaching detail. Start with our latest legal and accountability stories below, and use the topics list to follow longer-running matters. For the daily link-out bulletin of every published Japanese judgment, see our dedicated courts feed.
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What's covered in this guide
- Summary, District, Family and High Court of Tokyo coverage
- Tokyo District Court matters affecting Tokyo
- Sentencing, bail and trial procedure policy
- Public judicial inquiries of public interest
- Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and NPA oversight
- Major criminal trials and civil judgments
- Suppression orders and open-justice debates
- Daily linked court bulletin (see /courts)