What lies behind the arrest of the framed lawyer, Yasuda written by Miyazaki Manabu put into English by Gan-Bare-Yassan On December 6th last year (1998), one of the cream of the bar association of Japan was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters. An acquaintance of mine at the law office, to which the captured Yasuda belongs, informed me that the police would prosecute a search for exhibits there. I hurried to the office and was in attendance of the execution. While watching the situation, I shouted in my bosom, “I can’t believe all that’s going on here !” The reason why I couldn’t help feeling it unbelievable was that the arrested attorney, Yasuda, I believe, is the last person to do something evil or illegal. He is a materialized one of conscience of the bar association of Japan and plays the most important role in the anti-death penalty movement in Japan. Moreover, he is one of the rare real man among the lawyers who heartily wants to defend human rights of the accused. He had taken on the difficult task of pleading as chief counsel for Matsumoto Chizuo, a.k.a. Asahara Shoko, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that comｍitted a series of serious crimes, including the Tokyo subway sarin (a kind of nerve gas) attack, according to the indictment that the public persecutor submitted to the Tokyo District Court. Though almost everyone in Japan has a firm conviction that the accused Asahara is a wicked and evil scoundrel to be killed a hundred times, the lawyer still believes that Asahara has also human rights to be defended, which in my opinion sounds like a fiction, and he dares to risk his life to make every effort to defend the accused. Considering all of these, Yasuda is a man who obstinately and unadaptablly never does evil or illegal things. .I had heard that the chief counsel for Matsumoto Chizuo, a.k.a. Asahara Shoko, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo had been selected and recommended by the bar association and assigned by the court. So, I thought the lawyer was, in a sense, in the sanctuary that means the place farthest from the state power or the police power. Accordingly, I couldn’t help shouting to myself at first, “ I can’t believe all that’s going on now.” I noticed, when I arrived at the law office, that the police came to search there was not the security police but the criminal investigation section 2 of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters which deals with economic crimes. As I had seen the police’s search for exhibits many times and I myself had experienced to get the police’s search, in ordinary case I was able to understand the intention of the police easily, but in this case, though the legal procedure was taken properly, I thought it was very difficult to see what lies behind the arrest of the lawyer. According to the police, the lawyer was arrested on suspicion of having obstructed the compulsory execution regarding the huge debt which a realty dealer owe to the bankrupted housing loan companies----Nihon Jutaku Kinyu and Juso. Soon’s corporation Tokyo Ltd., the dealer, to which he was a legal adviser, concealed the rent for the buildings it owns, transferring it to a dummy company. The arrested lawyer, Yasuda directed the details of the concealing and obstruction of the forcible execution, the police says. Ordinary people may think that as Yasuda is a shyster lawyer hired by one of the notorious realty dealing companies which had led many of the housing loan companies to bankruptcy by not having paid the debt, and they also may think as he is a lawyer who has energetically pleaded for the wickedest evildoer Asahara of Aum Shinrikyo, it is natural for him to be apprehended. But Yasuda is, in fact, the cream of the bar association of Japan. He is one of the best and brightest lawyers in Japan. The arrest of Yasuda indicates that such economic and political problem as the management of the bad credits (credits hard to be withdrawn) begins to destroy the system of Japanese lawyers in which every attorney-at-law has done his or her duty. After the world war �U, the problem of bad credits (credits hard to be withdrawn) has been managed by each bank or financier invoking the Compulsory Execution Act and/or the Auction Act etc. which has long existed before the world war �U. Recently, partial amendment of these Acts has been made several times, which has led that those who withdraw their credit get much more advantage than before. To carry out the withdrawal of the bad credits without caring how they look, former system must be destroyed. If they should fail to destroy the former system, and if the management of the bad credits should not succeed because of that, financial crisis would occur, which they deeply want to avoid. So they have no hesitation to destroy the former system of the lawyers of Japan. Their logic has been seen very clear. Let us just stop to think the essence of the case. The case should be about the debt and credit. It should be a problem between the debtor and the creditor. It should be a civil case, and while the creditor makes every effort to be given back money he loaned, the debtor draws on his resources to shirk his duty--- both of them should state their claims at a civil court. So the justice is not always on the creditors side. Very often the debtor has an objection against the creditor and has a story to be heard. Recently, it has begun to be emphasized in Japan that a debtor must assume the responsibility for his debt. The Jukan Kiko (Managing-Housing-Loan- Companies’-Credits Organization) is also the one which claims that such debtors as realty dealers which owe much money to the bankrupted housing loan companies should bear the onus of paying their debt. But just stop to think why the organization, Jukan Kiko was established. Clearly enough, most of the people had feelings of disagreeableness and repulsiveness when the Japanese government paid \600,000,000,000(sixty billion yen) from the public purse for the management of the bad credits of the housing loan companies,　and Jukan Kiko was established to ease such feelings of the tax-payers. 　 We have established the Jukan Kiko and it will withdraw most of the bad credits (credits difficult to be withdrawn) , and so sixty billion yen paid out of the National Treasury will return to the Exchequer in the future---- the government confirmed at the Japanese Diet, which was ,I think , only a makeshift lie or a stopgap excuse, and many economists pointed untrue. So, it might be truly said that the Japanese government established Jukan Kiko to create an alibi. In exchange for the establishment of the Jukan Kiko, the Government could pour 60 billion yen (\600,000,000,000) out of the National Treasury to save many banks and Nokyo( agricultural cooperatives) and that was a breakthrough. After that, the Government had hands free to pour tens of trllions of yen for the disposal of the bad credits. Considering all of these, the Jukan kiko that lodged a complaint against the lawyer, Yasuda, is a fig leaf which conceals the maladministration of the Japanese government. The government, the politicians, bureaucracy and the establishment of Japan made the organization in order to mask the fact that the government had failed in stabilization of the nation’s economy. And the economic depression in Japan still prevailing made the establishment feel so impatient , which urged them to the arrest of Yasuda. This is what lies behind the capture of the lawyer. This is the first problem. The second problem is that the Jukan Kiko (Managing-Housing-Loan- Companies’-Credits Organization) consists mainly of attorneys-at-law. The president, vice-president and the executive director are all lawyers. Generally speaking, every one of the lawyer is hired by somebody or has his or her client, and I’d like to ask them who hires them or who is the client of them. They possibly may answer or insist that the people, the tax-payers are their client, but I do believe it is not true. They are hired by the authorities, or the establishment of Japan. In other words, their client is the authorities or the establishment of Japan. They have never laid an information against politicians and officials of the government, which shows that they are not in the position to defy the real clients. By the way, the private name of the president of the Jukan Kiko is Kohei, which means FAIRNESS in Japanese, but as a lawyer, he can’t be fair to everyone. He is hired by the authorities or the establishment of Japan i.e. his client is the authority or Japanese establishment, so he is always on the authority’s side, which contradicts his name Kohei (FAIRNESS). That’s why I always call him Hu-Kohei (UNFAIRNESS). He cannot but be unfair because his profession is a lawyer who is expected to serve his client and to be always on the client’s side. As such was the circumstances, they did choose Yasuda, the arrested lawyer as a scapegoat. The first stage of their strategy was to connect his image with the bad, evil, notorious one of the Aum Shinrikyou in order to hurt his image and reputation, which they actually carried out and had a successful fruit. And after they’d got the fruit of the lawyer’s broken-down reputation, the second stage of their strategy was put in motion. The matter of the fact is that there is a man who asked Yasuda to take on the difficult task of pleading for Asahara of Aum Shinrikyo. The man eagerly asked Yasuda to accept to work as chief counsel for the founder of the cult. He said to Yasuda,” Though this is a very troublesome case, there’s no one in Japan but you who has an ability and experiences and dare to take on the case. So please take the post of chief counsel for the accused Asahara for mercy’s sake.” And he knelt to the floor and struck the floor with the forehead, which in Japan is an act showing one’s si ncerity to ask someone to do something. The man who asked and led Yasuda to taking the position of pleading for Asahara as chief counsel is Kuroda Junkichi, the vice-president of the Jukan Kiko, which did lay an information against Yasuda. As Kuroda Junkichi is also known as an expert in defending a prisoner at the bar, he himself should have accepted the position. But I suppose he thought if he speaks in defense for the cult, Aum Shinrikyo, he would be beaten up by the public opinion. Accordingly Kuroda resorted the means of asking one of the companions of his to take the difficult and troublesome case, and bringing a charge against the companion later. In conclusion, Jukan Kiko (Managing-Housing-Loan-Companies’-Credits Organization ) exists only to protect bureaucracy and politicians. And as they put Nakabo Kohei, who is generally believed to be a man of honorable poverty, on the head of Jukan Kiko, they can rid people’s hearts of psychological resistance to the government’s pouring much money to save banks and other financiers. Judgment at court is conducted on the basis of judicial dispute, on the basis of disputing on both prosecutor’s side and the accused ’s side. The public prosecutor argue that how criminal the deed the accused did, and the defender argue how little are proven by the prosecutor that his client committed the crime. The system of judgment at court couldn’t keep existing if they should claim that the counsel for the defense should not speak in vindication of his client’s claim or conduct. The system of judgment, the judicial system of Japan will completely be destroyed or changed if attorneys-at-law are not allowed to advise or vindicate their clients regarding the management of the bad credits of the bankrupted housing loan companies. And the destruction or the change is what is going on now. Feeling this change of the judicial system, in fact, the lawyers have begun to get nervous. They’ve got suspicious or fearful about the possibility that they will be arrested next time. So, they are inclined to conclude that it is advisable for them not to take the position which might get such social critics as the defense counsel composed of 12 attorneys-at-law for Asahara have actually got from most of the mass media of Japan , that is to say ,it is safe for him or her not to plead for Asahara of Aum Shinrikyo, for example. If the number of such lawyers grows, a Villain like Asahara will soon be sentenced to death without being advocated fully and will immediately be killed. Then there will be a tr ial for mere form’s sake, but in reality a trial might as well never is. And a lawyer who wants to defend the human rights of the accused will not be considered a good lawyer, but a lawyer who cooperates with the judge or the persecutor in proceeding the quicker trial will be rewarded a good name. You may think the arrest of the framed lawyer, Yasuda is a trifle, but for us, outlaws, it bears a big problem to be seriously considered. If there are fewer lawyers who works for the accused, who committed a crime that is socially disdained, the society will be the place more hard to live in. Those who suffer under a false charge will possibly increase. The lawyer, Yasuda who pled in favor of the accused in many criminal cases making free use of his artistic skills might be a thorn in the fresh for the police power or the state power. I cannot help feeling the will of the power to get rid of him. In the political meaning, Jukan Kiko itself is very questionable and shady. Those who drive Yasuda into a tight corner are there, and sitting in a safe place, they are monthly paid two million and five hundred and thirty thousand yen for their work. They should have taken on the difficult task of pleading for Asahara, but they didn’t. And , Yasuda asked by Kuroda Junnkichi, who once was a companion of his, accepted his request with a chivalrous spirit. Later the police arrested Yasuda, and they filed a complaint against him following the police blindly, which I do believe is contrary to the laws of humanity.