2007 年 44 巻 1 号 p. 133-143
After the bus hijack in Nagasaki and the stabbing incident at Osaka Ikeda Elementary School have drown attention of the society, the Japanese government has made a series of discussions on legal and administrative responses, and legislative preparations as well. Meanwhile, a man who was attending in the clinic for mentally disorders committed a crime in Yao, Osaka; he caught an innocent boy on the skywalk and dropped the boy from 6-meter above the ground. The boy had a serious damage on the skull. If this perpetrator be dropped by based on Article 39 of the Criminal Law, he will then be treated as one of the objects of 'medical observation method'. Now it is challenged how to treat such an individual with mental disorders, while fully considering sentiment of victims. Legislative and administrative preparations concerning mentally-disabled people need to be further developed in Japan. In this circumstance, a special attention should be paid to how appropriate treatment is given to people with mental disorders, for example, how judiciary in charge would reach a verdict in collaboration with psychiatric judges. Referring to some cases in France, this study focuses on some problems of discharge procedures and seeks for solutions from the perspective of "due process". A Study of admission procedure is forthcoming in another paper.