The Law for the Prevention of Spousal Violation and the Protection of Victims was amended in May 2004. It will be enforced in this December. The major changes are as below: (1) the extension of the period of Vacation Orders from 2 weeks to 2 months, which the court orders to the assailant, (2) the inclusion of children to the protection by the prohibition against approaching a victim, (3) determining the promotion of the victims become self-reliance under the responsibilities pf local government, and (4) the inclusion of mental violence to the definition of domestic violence, which used to refer only to physical violence.
Although great amount of progresses were made, there still exist the problems piled up such as (1) the protected target of Protection Orders are limited to those of who has experienced physical violence, and it exclude the victims of mental, sexual, and economical violence, (2) the clarity of the details of supporting project for victims' economical independence, (3) the lack of the viewpoints regarding the project as a support for child-protection and child rearing, (4) and the limitation of the target of protection to marital relation, which automatically exclude the victims of intimate relationship and sexual minority. While making an effort for the enhancement of victims' protection, there is a need to develop a wide discussion, in the viewpoint of gender studies, over the whole social system regarding family/ marriage matters and social security recognizing the structural violence in domestic sphere as a nature of the domestic violence.
(ICU Student : Shimizu, Yudai)