大正少年法の施行と「司法保護」の観念 (課題研究 司法と福祉)

宮城長五郎の場合

抄録

1) Taisho Juvenile Law was a product of a lengthy debate that extended from 1899 to the Law's final enactment in 1922. This debate was characterized by an intensive cross-cultural dialogue between the thinking underlying American juvenile law and ideas on the treatment of delinquent children that were informed by Japanese cultural history. In contrast to the American notion of the Parens Patriae doctrine, which distinguishes between criminal accountability and rehabilitation of juveniles dichotomously, Taisho Juvenile Law institutionalizes a different concept for dealing juveniles, one which apprehends accountability and rehabilitation not as antagonistic, but rather complementary elements. Taisho Juvenile Law, though-because of strong opposition in the Diet from supporters of the parens patriae philosophy-was only enforced in limited areas, Tokyo and Osaka. From the time of the Law's enacment, Miyagi Chogoro, the head of the Rehabilitation Section at the Ministry of Justice, passionately worked to have it put into practice. 2) My thesis seeks to clarify concretely the above-mentioned non-dichotomous thinking of Japanese Taisho Juvenile Law by exploring the features and structures of Miyagi's thought as expressed in his writings and the official records he drafted. I wish to note that Miyagi, through his philosophical confrontation with parens patriae thinking, created a new and comprehensive legal concept for juvenile law and attendant systems, which he called Shiho Hogo, "judiciary guardianship." My analysis of Miyagi's writings and records describes his brilliant effort to find how best to integrate, within a very Japanese context, his rehabilitative ideals with conflicting notion of criminal accountability.