Overview
- Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced the panel on Feb. 10, with a first meeting planned by the end of March.
- The panel will include lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and criminal law scholars.
- Key issues include whether to criminalize buyers or their public acts of soliciting and whether to raise statutory penalties.
- The Ministry of Justice aims to pursue legal revisions in the autumn extraordinary Diet session or the 2027 regular session.
- Under current law sellers’ solicitation is punishable—up to six months’ detention or a fine of up to ¥20,000—while buyers face no criminal sanction, and foreign policy models will be examined.