Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 936 Opponent
It was already afternoon when I walked out of the detention center.

The sunlight was extremely bright.

Kitahara and Miyagawa were walking on the road, neither of them speaking.

They were all aware of the pressure and opponents they would face in this battle.

Outside, the city was already in turmoil. Every day, every police station in Tokyo was receiving numerous victims demanding that the police expedite the search for the whereabouts of the assets of Yamaho Capital, which was registered under Aso's name.

This case of illegal fundraising has dominated the headlines of major newspapers and weekly magazines.

The Asahi Shimbun headlined it as "The Biggest Scam in History." Tokyo officials repeatedly tried to appease angry citizens, promising to recover the losses for the victims.

Miyagawa was well aware that if they argued for acquittal under these circumstances, they would likely find themselves at odds with the entire nation. At that point, the national media would probably be vehemently criticizing them.

The court is certainly in a neutral and detached position.

However, there is no human being unaffected by public opinion.

There's a joke that describes how judges decide cases: a judge's verdict on you depends on whether his breakfast in the morning caused him any stomach upset.

Although this statement is exaggerated, it does reveal the truth.

Judges are human too.

As long as you are human, you will be affected by emotions.

After getting into the car, Miyagawa still felt a little uneasy. She looked at Kitahara and said, "This time, the prosecutor appearing in court at the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office is Prosecutor Takada. Prosecutor Takada can be said to be a very famous and senior figure in the prosecution field. My father told me that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Prosecutor Takada would be the candidate for the position of Vice Chief Prosecutor of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office."

Kitahara nodded. At this moment, Kitahara probably didn't expect that his opponent this time, Prosecutor Takada, would be a member of that organization.

“Even if it’s just for his own career, he has to get this case done,” Miyagawa said.

“Prosecutor Takada is going to be a tough opponent,” Kitahara said. “In this case, the prosecutor’s office made an exception and allowed the victim to select a lawyer to represent him in court.”

"What?!" Miyagawa looked surprised when he heard the news.

In economic crimes involving a large number of people, the right of ordinary victims to legal representation is usually denied.

The prosecutor's office has to take full responsibility for this.

Although the law does not restrict the rights of victims, this exclusion of victims' lawyers is, in a sense, a result of the pursuit of stability.

However, this time, Takada did the opposite and made an exception by allowing the victim's lawyer to appear in court as well.

"Who is the victim's lawyer?" Miyagawa pressed.

“Junpei Furuya,” Kitahara replied. “He’s a renowned civil rights lawyer. Attorney Furuya is primarily active in two areas. First, he represents numerous labor unions in lawsuits against companies, covering everything from labor standards to workplace safety. Second, he represents many group cases involving the financial sector. For example, a regional bank in Kyushu induced depositors to sign insurance contracts without their knowledge. Attorney Furuya represented the depositors in a collective lawsuit against the financial institution.”

"It's fair to say that Attorney Furuya is someone that any large corporation or government official would fear," Kitahara said.

“If that’s the case…” Miyagawa’s face already showed a bad sign, “Our client this time is a former official of Toyo Bank…”

“That’s right,” Kitahara continued. “I reckon Attorney Furuya will cling to this point and portray the case as a case of collusion between people inside and outside the financial regulatory system, and a case of the upper echelons plundering the people’s property. Attorney Furuya should be very familiar with this kind of technique.”

Miyagawa felt increasingly uneasy. "Public opinion was already against us in this case. If someone like Attorney Furuya adds fuel to the already angry public opinion..."

Miyagawa could hardly imagine this situation anymore.

“So Prosecutor Takada did it on purpose,” Kitahara said. “There’s already a problem with the identity verification of the victims’ lawyers. After all, it’s almost impossible for such a large number of victims to elect an authorized representative, and then that authorized representative can hire a lawyer.

"However, Prosecutor Takada not only recognized the legitimacy of the authorized representative, but also specifically brought in a civil rights lawyer like Furuya. This shows that, as a prosecutor, he also wanted to leverage overwhelming public opinion to win this case."

Kitahara Etsu said that Miyagawa felt as if his heart had sunk to the bottom of a valley.

One is an elite prosecutor.

The other is a civil rights lawyer.

If these two were to join forces in court, they would be virtually invincible.

“The only turning point in the case lies with the judge,” Kitahara said. “The presiding judge in this case is Yamashiro Kayoko.”

"Can she be of any help in the trial of this case?"

“Judge Yamashiro was transferred from the Supreme Court,” Kitahara said. “Previously, Judge Suga of the Tokyo High Court passed away unexpectedly, and there were no qualified candidates to be promoted to the High Court. Therefore, Judge Yamashiro was temporarily transferred from the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy.”

“Somewhat surprisingly, Judge Yamashiro is not an official who specializes in adjudicating financial cases,” Kitahara said. “She is a constitutional scholar. In her early years, she was a senior professor at Keio University. Later, she was selected as a judge of the Tokyo High Court. After that, due to her outstanding academic reputation and the results of her case handling, she was promoted to the Supreme Court.”

“Previously, her most well-known case was the GPS search constitutional review case. Specifically, it concerned whether the police's use of GPS to locate a suspect without a warrant violated Article 35 of the Constitution, which states, ‘No person’s dwelling, papers, or property may be entered into, searched, or seized without just cause and without a warrant.’”

"Judge Yamashiro made a rather bold ruling. He ruled that the police's GPS location tracking measures were unconstitutional. GPS cannot be used to locate a suspect without a search warrant."

"Judging from her past academic works, Yamashiro is a constitutional 'fundamentalist.' She insists that judges' interpretation of the law must start from the original meaning of the text, even if following the original meaning would lead to absurd results."

"For example, the Airport Security Act stipulates that no one may engage in disruptive behavior in the airport warehouse. However, if this article is strictly followed, if someone is at the airport but not in the warehouse, can they still engage in disruptive behavior? If we interpret this according to the original literal meaning, we will arrive at an absurd conclusion."

"However, the judge from the mountain city believes that the rule of law requires us to respect the legal text, even if the outcome is absurd."

(End of this chapter)