失踪問題の解決への政治的・法律的課題

抄録

There have been about 100,000 people who have disappeared every year in Japan. The reasons of these people being missing are that some runaway from home, some are involved in incidents, or accidents and some other personal matters. Of the about 100,000 missing people cases, ninety percent are resolved in a few years after the person goes missing, but the rest of the cases have been neglected for a long time. Missing persons cases don't raise the social concern unless it is an incident such as a missing child or suspicious criminal case. There are a lot of cases that have been neglected for a long time despite the police having investigated under the recognition as the victims of some incidents. The reason for the neglecting of missing cases is the cases' complexity, the non-existence of support systems to the families of missing people, and the limitation of the Police investigation. The second social issues have occurred in the families of the missing people, the discontinuity among families and the isolation in the local communities to these families. This thesis shows the political and legal obstacles regarding the investigation of missing people through research carried out on 470 missing person cases. And we hope to propose some policies in order to solve the missing person issue, the smooth relationship among the families and authorities, the innovation of law on the missing issue, and the supporting system to the families.