61387    In the case of appeals and final appeals, one must expect an additional two or three years.

61388    If trials drag on like this, they would be virtually of no use to people seeking a practical remedy.

61389    The cause of the delay varies from one case to another.

61390    It could be circumstances where the plaintiff or defendant, or in some cases the lawyers, may be inundated with so many cases that they need a long time in between the oral proceedings or they do not have time for sufficient preparation.

61391    However, there is no doubt that the number of judges is partly responsible for this situation.

61392    At present, the number of judges is approximately 2,000, or less than 3,000 including summary court judges.

61393    The number of judges has increased by less than 30 percent over the past 40 years.

61394    In the meantime, the number of cases received in relation to civil and administrative litigations has tripled over the same period of time.

61395    As a matter of course, the caseload has increased and it is estimated that the number of civil court cases on hand per district court judge is more than 200 on average.

61396    It is said that some judges have a total of over 400 cases including 300 cases where he hears on his own and 100 cases where he sits on a panel.

61397    Incidentally, when comparing the population per judge with those in Europe and the US, while it is 45,000 for Japan, it is 8,800 for the US, 1,600 for the UK and 4,400 for Germany.

61398    There are incredibly fewer judges in our country.

61399    Under the circumstance, it is not uncommon to have more than ten oral arguments in one day.

61400    As a result, we hear that there are instances where the judges are in such a hurry to conclude trials that they push for out-of-court settlements, saying, "If one gets hung up on the verdict, one will be further delayed."

61401    Rulings that follow government administration and those that follow precedents have also been frequently brought up, and it is not hard to imagine that the current caseload situation does not have anything to do with them.