Appropriateness of a sentence changes depending on the social and economic conditions in a given age. Recently, various legislations have been passed which change the scope of punishment and statutory sentence in order to enable punishments based on the actual conditions of cases.
  The Act for Partial Amendment to the Penal Code, etc. (No. 156 of 2004) enforced on January 1, 2005, in order to deal with serious heinous offenses, 1) raised the upper limit of the statutory sentence for definite-term imprisonment from 15 to 20 years, for the cases where there are aggravated factors, from 20 to 30 years, and for the cases where a capital or life imprisonment sentence is mitigated to definite-term imprisonment, from 15 to 30 years; 2) raised the statutory sentences for homicide, injury, injury causing death, dangerous driving causing death or injury, rape, forcible indecency, etc., also newly establishing the offense category of “gang rape (group rape)”, which should have had a great impact on the sentencing of such offenses.
  Also, in order to deal properly with theft and obstructing performance of public duty, etc., which had showed considerable growth in number of offenses in recent years, the Act for Partial Amendment to the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure was enforced on May 28, 2006 newly establishing the financial sanctions for such offenses.