Overview
- JR East confirmed that multiple legal staff secretly recorded exchanges in civil court cases from 2017 through 2021.
- Employees used company IC recorders to capture hearings, drafted detailed internal notes to share across departments, then deleted the audio.
- An anonymous internal report in November 2021 prompted an investigation that reviewed cases dating back to April 2017.
- The company says it did not instruct anyone to record and issued 2022 discipline for employees and supervisors without revealing who or what penalties.
- Recording a hearing in Japan requires a judge’s permission under Supreme Court rules, so the practice could violate court procedures and trigger compliance scrutiny.