TOKYO: Japan's Justice Ministry has drafted a bill to raise the retirement age of public prosecutors, excluding the prosecutor-general, who is the chief of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, to 65 from 63 at present.

The bill to amend the law on prosecutors offices, presented to a joint meeting of the justice and other divisions of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday, calls for raising the prosecutor retirement age to 64 in fiscal 2022 and to 65 in fiscal 2024. The retirement age of the prosecutor-general, which already stands at 65, will not be changed.

The ministry also submitted a bill to raise the retirement age of national civil servants to 65 from 60 in stages.

But the LDP side withheld its approval as some participants at the meeting strongly called for accelerating the reform of the civil service system, such as thoroughly implementing a performance-based promotion and salary system.

In a recent development that stirred controversy, the tenure of Hiromu Kurokawa, chief prosecutor at the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, who reached the retirement age on Feb. 7 under the prosecutors offices law, was extended until Aug. 7 using a provision on the extension of the retirement age under the national civil service law.

While the Justice Ministry started considering raising the prosecutor retirement age to 65 before the extension of Kurokawa's tenure was decided at a cabinet meeting on Jan. 31, a heated parliamentary debate is expected on the prosecutors offices law amendment, pundits said.

The government hopes to get cabinet approval for the series of bills in early March and submit them to the ongoing regular parliamentary session.

JIJI Press