Section 4  Development of the Court-Appointed Defense Counsel System

  The Amended Code of Criminal Procedure, etc. introduced a system for selecting court-appointed defense counsels for unindicted suspects from the point of view of effectively securing the right of unindicted suspects and defendants to receive support from lawyers and realizing enhanced and prompt criminal trials. Furthermore, with regard to the system of selecting court-appointed defense counsels for defendants, the Amended Code developed the court-appointed defense counsel system after compiling the requirements and procedures for selecting court-appointed defense counsels and also newly established provisions concerning cases where court-appointed defense counsel are selected for juvenile unindicted suspects.
  The Amended Code limits the scope of application of the court-appointed defense counsel system for suspects to those detained but will expand the scope of covered cases in a phased manner. For the first stage (implemented on October 2, 2006) the coverage shall include cases punishable by death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment with or without work whose statutory minimum term of imprisonment is one year or more, while for the second stage (to be implemented on May 21, 2009) the coverage shall be expanded to cases punishable by death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment with or without work whose statutory maximum term of imprisonment is in excess of three years.